Valentine for Our New City Manager

February 14, 2014, 7:46 pm

≫ Next: The 1937 Portsmouth Flood: A Narrative of Redemption or of Racism?

≪ Previous: Top Ten Posts: 2004-2014

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Hey sitty man’ger, pal o’ mine!

Won’t you be my valentine?

We never new which day was pickup.

It was unpredicable as a hickcup.

We never new, we never new, no way.

But now it’s definit: pickup is no day.

We never new when they’d be here.

Or off sumwears havin’ a beer.

But now with you we can rust ashured.

Our sitty trash probplums  sugar cured.

Because sitty gov'men's on the fritz

Our overflowin ’ trash jest sits and sits.

                                   Snuffy Smith 

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The 1937 Portsmouth Flood: A Narrative of Redemption or of Racism?

March 5, 2014, 6:15 am

≫ Next: The Hill View Flyer [reposted]

≪ Previous: Valentine for Our New City Manager

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Photo by Lisa Pasquinelli Rickey of Mural by Robert Dafford

In the video River Voices (2002), senior Portsmouth residents who had lived through the 1937 Flood shared their recollections and reflections of  what was up to that time  the country’s worst flood.   Portsmouth is located in the Bible Belt, a  geographical fact that is reflected in River Voices. Two major events in particular in the bible influenced River Voices, the first  of which  was the Great Flood and the second of which was  the coming  of Christ.  God’s main purpose in the Great Flood was to drown the  wicked descendants of Adam and Eve and start over again with the righteous Noah and his family. But that plan didn’t work out,  so God sent his son Jesus Christ who offered sinful humanity redemption by his sacrifice on the cross. Those who accepted Jesus as their savior were ipso fact saved.

In the narrative of redemption in River Voices, the savior of the 1937 Flood was not a male but a female, and not a white but a black female.   In “The Great Ohio River Flood” (2005), an informative scholarly paper that is available at the Shawnee State  library and online (click here). Lisa M. Pasquinelli (now Lisa P. Rickey) pointed out that  there was a white male, Everett Conley, who drowned in the ’37 Flood. He happened to be about the same age as Jesus, but  no one thought of him as a savior, probably  because  there was no place for him in  a  narrative of redemption, no place for him in River Voices, or anywhere else.  Conley had  not  been trying to rescue someone from drowning; he was rather trying to win a  bet that he could swim two hundred yards in the flood with his clothes on.  It is hard to imagine anyone making that  foolish bet sober.Sober or not, Conley was not  qualified to serve as the savior in   the narrative of redemption,  but Bessie Tomlin was.  She ended up in the water with her clothes on but not to win a bet. She was in the water because  the rowboat that was transferring her from the Washington School to the Lincoln School  had capsized. There  was no doubt about the location of  the capsizing—it was at the corner of  11th and Waller, but  there was doubt about why the boat capsized.  The explanation that came down to us is that Tomlin, after having been splashed by water from  a wave, had stood  up in a panic, causing the boat to tip over.

                                The Wave: Deus Ex Machina

About that wave. The weather during the flood  was not stormy and  the water was not surging. The weather had been unseasonably warm and rainy all winter. The weather remained calm throughout the flood. The many photos taken during the flood show water flowing everywhere but no turbulence, no waves. Before the river could surge over the  floodwall, wreaking havoc on life and property,  city engineers had opened the valves of  at least six sewers  so that river water would flow smoothly and gradually  into the city.  They were trying as much as possible to make it a controlled flood. It is possible that water  splashed on Tomlin, there was so much of it around, but it seems rather unlikely that it would have been from a wave. The wave may have been the deus ex machinaof the narrative of redemption, the thing that explained the capsizing of the boat and the drowning of Tomlin. After the boat capsized, the fireman Walter Chick who was in charge  and who presumably had been doing the rowing,  either quickly righted the boat or was rescued by another boat. In either case, he would have been soaking wet. It was  7 PM, on  January 25th, so   it was already dark (this was before daylight saving time), making everything and everyone harder to see. This crucial episode in the narrative of redemption took  place figuratively as well as literally in the dark. In his depiction of Tomlin handing Alberta up to Chick (shown above),  Dafford, heightening the drama, depicted the water at the time of Tomlin’s drowning as tempestuous, but it was the artist, we might say, not nature, making waves. Dafford also depicts Chick as dry, as if he had not been in the water. In the central panel of the flood mural (shown below), painted from a photo, there are no waves. Flooded Portsmouth looks in the central panel as calm as a canal in Venice.

Flooded Portsmouth, looking in central panel  as calm as a canal in Venice

After handing Alberta up to Chick, Tomlin is reported to have cried,  “Save my baby! Save my baby!” Then she disappeared under the water. Because of her sacrifice, she was eventually transformed  into a Christ figure but not just because she had saved her daughter but also because she saved the  city, spiritually speaking. She set the example of self-sacrifice for  all the residents of the city. One of the voices in River Voices said the best thing about the flood was that it was “spiritual.” Another went so far as to say  the  flood was  the best thing that had ever happened to Portsmouth. As the chief victim of the “spiritual” flood, Tomlin has become arguably the most revered figure in the city’s history. 

                                        Real Time, Mythic Time

  In her paper,  Pasquinelli pointed out some facts related to the flood that I didn’t hear voiced in River Voices. Pasquinelli was not trying to confirm or refute the  narrative of redemption; she was simply trying to establish the truth.   As she wrote in the Acknowledgment, she was trying  “to absorb as much of the truth as I could, and to tell it, as best I knew how.” About the most important episode of the redemption narrative, Tomlin’s death,   Pasquinelli acknowledged, was a problem. “It is unclear whether Chick was able to right his own boat or whether he had made his way to another boat,” she wrote. And what about Tomlin’s two other children and her mother-in-law, who had been in the boat and were presumably in the water? Like the flood water itself, at this  crucial point in  the narrative, things become murky. When there is  uncertainty about what actually happened in history, as there often is afterward,  and not just in a crisis, myth makers step in  to  reconcile inconsistencies, fill in the gaps with  might-have-beens to keep the narrative spinning,  turning what was  at best an ambiguous incident into a clearly defined one.  It was hard to understand  how  Chick could have taken  Alberta from  her mother in the darkness if the boat had just capsized. Had he righted the heavy sixteen-foot-long john boat, if that was the type of rowboat it was,  then he would have had to retrieve the oars in the dark and positioned the boat to rescue the mother and infant.  In real world there does not appear to have been enough time to do everything, and for everything to happen, but in the mythic time of art there is all the time in the world. 

John Lorentz suspects that the reason  Bessie Tomlin’s self-sacrifice  had been ignored in earlier  accounts  of the flood might have been because of racism. I've been told her original gravestone at the cemetery was quite small. (It has since been replaced by an imposing one.) But he does not voice that suspicion in River Voices because racism would cast a shadow over the narrative of redemption and reflect poorly on the people of Portsmouth, who were portrayed in River Voices as the salt of the earth. But there is another possible  reason why Tomlin’s sacrifice  had previously been ignored. When I was a member of the Scioto County Historical Society some years ago, I heard another account  of the Tomlin drowning from older white female members of the  society,  an account that I was told had originated in the Portsmouth black community. I  will not repeat that account here, since it might have been an unfounded,  possibly racist rumor that had originated in the white, not the black community. It is a very remote possibility, and I say it quite tentatively, but it is possible that Tomlin was a victim of de facto segregation because if she had not being transferred to  a de facto separate-but-equal refuge, she probably would not have drowned.


                                        De Facto Segregation

I gather from Pasquinelli’s paper that de facto segregation might have been  one of the factors that complicated flood relief efforts in Portsmouth. In the earliest stages of the flood, established patterns of behavior, distinctions of class and race in particular,  were tentatively suspended. The de facto segregation of pre-flood  Portsmouth was put on hold. Even Dreamland Pool, which normally was segregated, harbored people of color in the early stages of the flood. The residents of Hilltop were mostly white and a number  of them reportedly took in refugees  from the floodplain, but it is unlikely that  many  if any blacks were among those who were taken in at Hilltop homes.  At the beginning of the flood, before the schools in the floodplain were inundated,  both whites and blacks took refuge in them, but as the flood spread over the floodplain, Lincoln  School on the Hilltop became the school  to which  black refugees were transported.  Lincoln School was the destination the boat Tomlin was in until it capsized. There had been white refugees in the Lincoln School in the earliest stage of  the  flood, but the whites were moved out to make room for blacks because  Lincoln School  had become a sort of separate-but-equal facility for blacks during the flood. Not appreciating being crowded into the Lincoln School, the blacks there protested. “The protest,” Pasquinelli wrote, “was by several hundred African Americans who were being  housed at the still-crowded Lincoln School and who did not want to be removed from the city, fearing they would not be returned promptly after the flood was over.” On  Friday January 21, 1830, all the blacks of Portsmouth had been ordered out of the city. Whether or not they knew of  Black Friday, the blacks at the Lincoln School knew their presence in Portsmouth was not appreciated by some white residents who would just as soon they never returned, partly because they were reproducing so rapidly.  The twenty-two-year-old Tomlin had already given birth to three children and was very close at the time of the flood to giving birth to a fourth. “Overcrowding on the Hilltop,” Pasquinelli wrote, “became a significant problem.” Was part of the problem the protesting blacks in the Lincoln School? When the blacks at the Lincoln School  did finally agree under pressure to be evacuated to cities further north, the percentage of blacks  who were evacuated from the city was proportionally higher than the number of whites who were. When some of those blacks  arrived in Columbus they found themselves in segregated facilities.

In River Voices,  the Lorentzes were not just excellent videographers, they were also excellent myth makers. The enshrinement of Bessie Tomlin  helped  cover up, or at least mitigate,  Portsmouth’s racist past of which so-called  Black Friday was an infamous example. The author of A History of Scioto County (1903), Nelson W. Evans,  called Black Friday a “relic of barbarism,” but that day is no longer part of Portsmouth’s collective memory. Black Friday has been covered up, covered up beautifully it could be said,  both on the floodwall murals, where it was not depicted,  and in  River Voices, where it went unvoiced. 

Click on Relevant Posts

Black Friday and Dreamland: The Beautiful Cover Up 

 Portsmouth Murals Cover Up

Welcome to River Vices The very first River Vices posting

The Hill View Flyer [reposted]

April 6, 2014, 11:43 am

≫ Next: Flight 370

≪ Previous: The 1937 Portsmouth Flood: A Narrative of Redemption or of Racism?

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The budget-busting sentence from Sect. 87 of City Charter. The same language is used in Sect. 89 covering the Fire Dept.

The article below was originally posted on May 5, 2011. Because our new city manager was not around three years ago to read it, I am reposting it so that our un-elected city manager can continue his on-the-job training. He recently complained about the difficulties of trying to balance the budget when the number of employees of both the Fire and Police departments are dictated by the city charter, as if no one had read the city charter before.  A city manager has even less authority than the mayor under the previous system of city government had of changing that onerous provision of the charter. We are stuck with that provision and the city manager form of government, and for that we have the officious First Ward councilman Kevin Johnson to thank. R.F.

The Hill View Flyer: “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics!”

 The flyer (shown above ) appeared in the mailboxes of residents at the Hill View Retirement Center not long before they voted on May 3, 2011,  on a proposed  city income tax increase. The  purpose of the flyer, in my reading of it, was not so much to inform the residents on the proposed income tax increase as it was to scare the bejesus out of them. If it did not do that with what Mark Twain called “lies, damned lies, and statistics,” then it did it with at least some very misleading “talking points.”

  

Talking Point #1: The Title

The scare tactics begin with the typography of the title of the flyer, “Talking Points for the Police and Fire Levy.” The  flyer’s title is  not only in larger type, it is  bolded, italicized, and underlined. Typographically, the title  looks alarming. If you did it justice, when you read it aloud you would make it sound like a three-alarm fire. The title is designed to get the attention of the seniors at Hill View by all typographical means. In addition, the title is semantically misleading. Instead of calling a spade a spade, it calls it a heart. Instead of calling the proposed city income tax increase a tax increase, it calls it a  “Police and Fire levy.” “Levy” sounds so much less onerous than  “tax,” and mentioning  the  “Police and Fire” in  the title introduces the issue of the  Hill View residents’ safety. The purpose of the title  may have been to alarm  the  residents of Hill View  about crime and fire. The purpose of the flyer itself may have been to get the residents to vote for the levy as a way of protecting themselves against fire.

 Talking Point #2

“2.8 Million Dollars will be raised yearly by the levy and directly fund the Police and Fire 5.5 year Levy.” Instead of being a damned lie, this  talking point  is a statistic, a misleading statistic.  How much will be raised yearly by the increased income tax depends upon the economy, both nationally and locally. The worse the economy, the fewer the jobs, and the lower the revenue from the Portsmouth city income tax will be. Even when the national economy was booming, prior to the current Great Recession, Portsmouth remained in the same economic doldrums that it had been in for at least a quarter century.  Will the economy be better in the future? Probably  not.  In keeping with the aims of the backers of the city income tax increase,  the projected  2.8 million figure is probably inflated, or “Trented,” to coin a word, assuming City Auditor Trent Williams  had anything to do with  the projection.  In the five and one-half year life span of the 2 percent tax, the annual amount will vary, at best, and for the next couple of  years at least is  likely to fall below the $2.8 million projection. And will the tax really end in five and a half years? And will Peter Rabbit stay out of Mr. McGregor's garden?

Talking Point #3

“6/10 percent increase, 1.4 percent now, brings us to 2.0%, New Boston is at 2.5” 
Talking Point #3, like Talking Point #2, shows it is possible to mislead, if not lie, with statistics. What this  cryptic talking point is saying  is, “The  0.6 percent proposed Portsmouth income tax increase is small, and even when it is added to the city’s current 1.4 percent rate it only takes us up to 2 percent, which is still a lot less than the  2.5 percent income tax rate of neighboring New Boston.”  What this talking point does not say is that the 2.5% income tax rate was one of the money-raising responses the  village of New Boston  made in response to the fiscal crisis it faced when the steel and coke plants closed. But New Boston not only raised its income tax, it seriously cut the costs of its government.  New Boston laid off  public  employees, including police and firefighters, but Portsmouth has not. If comparisons of income tax rates between Portsmouth and  other Ohio cities are relevant, then it is misleading to compare Portsmouth (pop. 20,000) to  New Boston (pop. 2000) as it would be to compare Portsmouth  to Columbus (pop. 787, 000), the state’s  largest city. Yes, both New Boston and Columbus  have 2.5% income tax rates, but it makes more sense to compare Portsmouth not with villages and metropolises but with mid-sized and small Ohio cities, most of which have  income tax rates below  2%, such as  Jackson (0%); Ironton (1%);  Piketon (1%); Waverly (1%); South Bloomfield (1%); Findlay (1.25%); Ashland (1.5%); Circleville  (1.5%);  Lima (1.5%); Chillicothe (1.6%); Marion (1.75%); and Delaware (1.85%).  As for a neighboring city in a neighboring state, Ashland, Kentucky, has close to the same population (22,000) and close to the same income tax rate (1.5%) as Portsmouth (1.4%).

Talking Point #4

“If [the levy] passes funds will establish the re-opening of Company 3.” 
This talking point says that passage of the income tax increase will enable the fire department to reopen the Company 3 Hilltop station. If the levy passes the station probably will reopen. But what this talking point does not say is that it was the Fire Department itself, after discussing the matter with Mayor-unelect David Malone, who made the decision to close the Hilltop station. “That is the decision myself and the Mayor (David Malone) agreed on in trying to comply with Council’s demand we cut 20 percent out of the budget,” Portsmouth Fire Chief Bill Raison told the Portsmouth Daily Times (3/11/11). The City Council had directed the mayor to cut the Fire Department budget by 20%, but such a sizeable cut would have required financial concessions by the fire fighters that they were not willing to make. Instead of layoffs, furloughs and other concessions, the Fire Department closed the Hilltop Station. The Fire Department had a choice: make financial concessions to ease the budgetary crisis or jeopardize the safety of those who live in the Hilltop area by closing the Hilltop station. They chose to jeopardize the safety of those in the Hilltop area by closing the Hilltop station. Is it possible, furthermore,  that the Hilltop station was closed by the Fire Department because it could then be raised as a safety  issue by firefighters in the door-to-door campaign they waged prior to the May 3rd primary? The flyer itself, assuming the Fire Department had something to do with its creation, is evidence of the department's dishonorable intentions. 

Talking Point #5

“If it [the levy] passes funds will increase manpower (2 currently retired and not filled, 1 projected).” 
To try to meet the  20% budget reduction set by the council, the Fire Department agreed that three retiring members would not be replaced. But Talking Point #5  promises to restore those three eliminated positions if  the levy is passed. If the residents vote for the levy and the positions are restored, the residents would get increased protection from fires and they would be getting it free, because they would not be paying any city income tax. The people who have jobs in  Portsmouth will be the ones  paying for the additional fire protection for the residents at  Hill View, who will be paying nothing.  (See Talking Point #7, below.)

Talking Point #6

“$50,000.00 yearly income                   $25,000 yearly income

            $300.00 increase yearly                         $150.00 increase yearly

              $23.00 increase monthly                       $11.50 increase monthly

                                $00.83 increase daily                            $00.42 increase daily”  

   

Talking Point #6 uses statistics to suggest that the income tax increase will cost wage earners relatively little, but it does so by calculating only the increase, without saying what the total city income tax for an individual wage earner would be. For someone in Portsmouth earning $25,000 a year, the total city income tax would be $500, not $150, and for someone earning $50,000, it would be $1,000 a year, not $300, which is not small change, even to someone earning $50,000 a year. But how many people working in Portsmouth, outside of the city government, make $50,000 a year? The estimated median income in Portsmouth in 2009 was not $50,000, and it was not even $25,000: it was $20,909. If the city was the only entity  that wage earners had to pay taxes to, that would be one thing, but they also have to pay state and federal income taxes as well as  property taxes to the county (of which the city gets a cut) if they are home owners.

Talking Point #7

 “Fixed income residents will not be affected (Social Security, Retirements, Disabled).” 
As an indication of its importance, Talking Point #7, like the flyer’s title,  is bolded, italicized, and  underlined. Why? Because it is a reminder to Hill View residents that if they vote for the levy and it passes they will not have to pay for it.  This talking point reassures Hill View residents that, though  raising the city income tax will benefit them in terms of increased fire protection,  that increased protection  will cost them nothing. This talking point is factually accurate but morally questionable. Should Hill View residents get the benefits of increased fire protection without having to pay for it? Should someone who has a job in Portsmouth that pays $25,000  but who lives out of the city have to pay $500 a year to reopen the Hilltop station to provide  increased protection for the residents of Hill View, a high end retirement community that people live in by choice? And it is not just those earning $25,000 who would have to pay 2% of their pay to provide additional protection for the residents of Hill View. So would those working at McDonald’s earning not much more than half that. A cashier at McDonald’s makes about $16,000 a year and a crew member even less.

  

Talking Point #8

The statistics cited in Talking Point #8  may have been intended not just to inform but also to scare, as mentioned earlier in Talking Point #6.  Even if the statistics are  not misleading (and I would argue some of them are), they are tied to the closing of the Hilltop station, on 17th Street, which the Fire Department itself decided to do. If the firefighters had been willing to pay a higher percentage of their health benefits, pensions   and forgo cost of living increases, it probably would have been possible to the keep the Hilltop station open and the statistics shown above would not apply to Hill View residents. Am I being cynical in thinking the Fire Department may have closed the Hilltop station partly to provide statistics that  could be used to frighten  Hill View residents into voting for the city income tax increase?

Was the closing of the Hilltop Fire Station calculated to scare the hell out of Hill View residents? 

Talking Point #9

“Population: No Decrease since 1987. As per the 2009  Census, Portsmouth population was  20,354.” 
Talking Point #9 is not just misleading, it is dead wrong.  Census records show there has not been a decade since 1930 that the population of Portsmouth has increased or even held its own. Since 1930, Portsmouth has steadily lost more than half its population. The assertion that there has been no decline since 1987 is not true. Why does the Hill View flyer make a  false claim about Portsmouth’s population not decreasing?  The flyer is apparently  trying  dispel  the common sense notion that a city that has lost half its population in the last eighty years probably  needs less, not more, firefighters. It would be useful for purposes of comparison  to know how many firefighters there were in the Portsmouth Fire Department in 1930, when the population was  about 42,000,  or  how many there were in 1950, when the population was about  37,000.  Has  the Fire Department increased in number as the population has  decreased?  I don’t know, but I do know from census records that the population has shrunk drastically. As for the claim that there has been no decrease in population since 1987, census figures show there were 25,993 in 1980; 22,676 in 1990; 20,909 in 2000; and about 20,000 in 2010. That is a loss of about  6,000 people in the last four decades. 1987 was no exception to the rule that Portsmouth has been in a steady population decline for a long time. 

Insulation, Solicitation, Obfuscation

On May 4th, the day after the primary, I emailed John Prose, the CEO of Hill View, asking him about the flyers and about reports I heard  that two members of the Fire Department had spoken to Hill View residents on the eve of  the voting on the income tax increase. I suspected there might be some connection between the flyers and the appearance of the two firemen. Mr. Prose replied promptly to my email, but instead of  an explanation, he responded with an  obfuscation. To obfuscate is to be evasive, unclear, or intentionally confusing. Obfuscating  is something politicians routinely do in responding to questions they don’t want to answer. So it is still a mystery to me, and to some residents,  how the flyers got into  the Hill View mailboxes. Under U.S. Code for crimes and criminal procedure (Chapter 83, Title 18, Section 1725), it is unlawful for anything, including political flyers, to be put in mailboxes if it  lacks U.S. postage and has not gone through a U.S. post office. The law stipulates that nothing should be put in, on, taped, or tied to mailboxes. Fines may be as high as $5,000 for each violation for an individual and $10,000 for an organization.

I am told Hill View has a policy of not allowing  political solicitation or the circulation of petitions. But it appears that  policy is not being administered equitably. When he was councilman for Ward 3, Bob Mollette told me he more than once was denied permission to speak to Hill View residents, even though he was their elected representative. Why then would two members of the Fire Department be allowed to speak to Hill View residents on the eve of the primary in which the  so-called “Police and Fire Levy” was on the ballot? Prior to the recall election of Jane Murray, Mr. Prose distributed a letter to Hill View residents that seemed to me clearly political in nature. I wonder if those managing senior housing centers in Portsmouth have an obligation  to perform like those late nineteenth-century political ward heelers who influenced immigrants to vote for candidates approved by the party bosses. 

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” That’s what politics in America often boils down to, and nowhere more than in Portsmouth, as the Hill View flyer may illustrate.

Flight 370

April 19, 2014, 8:02 am

≫ Next: City Council Appointees: Portsmouth’s Perennial Problem

≪ Previous: The Hill View Flyer [reposted]

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Imagine if you can, on this the sad first

Anniversary of the Boston Marathon  bombing,

That you were one of the passengers,

Numbering 227 according to Malaysia Airlines,

On the doomed Flight 370,

Flying in a sleek Boeing 777, with robin-egg blue wings

In the middle of the night, on  March 18, 2014,

Flying from the  capital Kuala Lumpur,

To Beijing, some 2700 hundred miles away.

Imagine you were young or old,

Male or female, mostly of Chinese

Or of Malaysian descent,

Or one of  the contingent of Indians

Or one of the couple of Ukrainians,

Or  the 51-year-old IBM executive

From the Dallas-Fort Worth area,

From which he’d just returned

After visiting his ex- and two sons,

And was  returning to  Beijing,

To take care of some unfinished business.

He’d spent the last two years in Beijing

Before being transferred to Kuala Lumpur,

The last career move he’d ever make,

Or that you are one of the teen-age couple,

She Asian and beautiful, he European

And doting hopelessly on her,

Who are returning to school in France

From  a vacation on a travel poster beach

Where their footprints in the sand lead

To a sanctuary  in the dunes where they lie on their backs

Looking up at the  blue sky and dissolving  vapor trail

Of a jet that is too high for itself to be seen,

As if it was  disappearing into eternity.

Or imagine you were one of the twenty

Younger Chinese and Malaysian employees

Of an Austin-based semi-conductor company

With an assembly and test-plant in Tianjin.

Or if semi-conductors are not your thing,

Imagine you are the Hollywood stunt man,

Chinese, of course, like Bruce Lee,

Flying to Beijing to see his two kids

Before he flies  back to Malaysia

To film the Netflix series “Marco Polo.”

Or you are the Siberian diving instructor,

Also the father of two kids, on his way home

From a trip to Bali, Indonesia, back to  Irkutsk, in Siberia,

Where he was a member of a  tight-knit Jewish community.

Or imagine you are the pregnant passenger,

Or the one recovering from a miscarriage,

Or that you are the four-year-old sister,

Or her two-year-old brother, the youngest on board.

They were born in America, but their last name was Chinese,

But their first names were  Nicole and Leo.

Or imagine you are the second-oldest passenger,

A 76-year-old Chinese man who has survived

A truck collision, political persecution, and three heart attacks.

He  was one of  the artistic contingent of twenty,

Who were returning from an art exhibit in Kuala Lumpur.

Among the twenty  was an unemployed factory worker

Who managed to save enough to learn calligraphy.

Or imagine you were one of the two younger men

Who were returning to China to visit dying fathers,

Or one of the two older couples who were expecting

Soon to become grandparents, or the young couple

Who had just celebrated their first wedding anniversary,

Or the Indian microbiologist who was flying for the first time

Along with her retired husband and youngest son

Who were on their way  to Beijing to attend the graduation

Of her oldest son, with a degree in engineering,

Or imagine you are  the 29-year-old Iranian

Who  was traveling to Germany illegally,

With a stolen passport, seeking asylum, hoping

To be reunited with his mother, already there.

Imagine that you were any of these passengers one hour

Into  the flight when the plane lost contact

With air traffic control  and disappeared from radar

For the next next seven hours,  or so

The authorities speculated, and flew toward

The South China Sea, or the Indian Ocean,

Or  god only knows where it went down

At sometime not long after dawn

When the plane finally ran out of gas,

Following what some will  believe was God’s will,

And others that a fanatic among the passengers

Or crew felt they were following God’s will

In prolonging the terror  as long as possible,

And mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers,

Young and the old, right-brained and left-brained

The artistically  talented and technically inclined,

The well-to-do and the barely making it,

The happy and the unhappy, the well and the ill,

Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, Indonesians,

And a quotient  of Caucasians,

Somebody’s  near and dear loved ones

Or distant and now dead relatives,

Reminding  us of the terrible things that can happen

To ordinary people, members of our species,

Enduring the  boredom or the frustration,

The divorces, deaths, and diseases

Of their quotidian existence

But suddenly lifted by technology

Along with the 450 ton aircraft  with robin-egg blue wings,

Astonishingly 36,000  feet up in the air,

Cruising at 570 miles an hour

And  held hostage  by an insane person or persons,

Drunk on god and religion, with messianic delusions,

Just as millions of brainwashed believers

Belonging to three crazy, competing teams

That are all in the same  crazy  league,

Playing with  weapons of mass destruction,

Holding humanity at large hostage

As  planet earth speeds around the sun

At  67,000  thousand miles  an hour.

Imagine if you can that technology is a pact

With the devil who is monitoring our smart phones

And running in-flight movies in our minds

While  annihilation approaches exponentially

Until  we are like the passengers on Flight 370,

Whom we never knew but  have already forgotten—

The old artist who survived three heart attacks,

Little Leo who has not yet learned to count,

The  passengers who are flying for the first time

The teenagers on their backs, looking up at the blue sky,

The unemployed worker who learned calligraphy,

And  the 42-year-old  woman whose birthday it was,
Who will never have to play the numbers game again.

                                                Robert Forrey,  April 2014

City Council Appointees: Portsmouth’s Perennial Problem

May 20, 2013, 11:16 am

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Mark Twain showed river towns have more than their share of vices. RIVER VICES shows Portsmouth, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Scioto Rivers, is no exception.

Mike Mearan: the Most Notorious Appointee

The Portsmouth  Daily Timesreported (18 May 2013) that a second candidate, Lance L. Richardson,  is going to throw his hat in the ring for the Third Ward council seat being vacated by Nick Basham. Does that mean he wants to be appointed by the council or that he wants to be a write-in candidate in the regular election? As far as I know, Richardson has previously shown no interest in becoming a member of city government the old-fashioned way, by running for office. That is often the case with appointees. They run for office the way Rosie Ruiz ran the 1980 Boston Marathon, by skipping the grueling race but showing up at the finish line. The “ring” Richardson threw his hat into consists not of Portsmouth voters but the remaining five Portsmouth city council members whom the city charter authorizes to appoint replacements to the city council. Back on 26 June 2006, Richard Noel, president of the Concerned Citizens Group, wrote a letter to the Portsmouth City Council requesting that a measure be placed on the ballot calling for the term for city council members be reduced from four to two years. Up until 1985, Portsmouth City Council members served two-year terms, but then that provision was changed in that year by charter amendment. The council rejected Noel's proposal and declined to allow the voters decide whether to go back to two-year terms. 

       City Council = House of Representatives

The Founding Fathers intended that the U.S. House of Representatives be “the people’s house,” the body of the federal government that would be directly elected by, and therefore most accountable to, the people. It was to be the most representative and the most held-accountable body of the federal government. In the Federalist Papers, Hamilton and Madison wrote, “As it is essential to liberty that the government in general should have a common interest with the people, so it is particularly essential that the branch of it under consideration [the House of Representatives] should have an immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people.” The best way they could think of to insure that the House of Representatives would remain “the people’s house,” was frequent elections. “Frequent elections are unquestionably the only policy by which this dependence and sympathy can be effectually secured” [emphasis added], they wrote in number 52 of the Federalist Papers. In regard to frequent elections, they quoted, in number 53, the proverb “that where annual elections end, tyranny begins.” But that proverb was an old one, and conditions had changed since ancient Greece. Elections every year were impractical when many voters were spread over large areas. Somewhat reluctantly, because they preferred annual elections, the Founding Fathers decided that the maximum term for a representative should be biennial, that is, two years.

                               Local Government in Ohio

When Ohio designed its state government, it closely followed the federal model, with a General Assembly that consisted of a House of Representatives and a Senate. Following the federal model, terms for the Ohio House, the “people’s house,” were two years. Most local governments in Ohio usually followed the state model. In local governments, the legislative body, the counterpart to a House of Representatives, is the city council. Following the example of the House of Representatives, two-year terms were the general rule for city councils. But a number of cities and towns have shifted to a mixture of two-year terms for ward representatives and four-year terms for at-large council members; other communities have shifted to a four-year term for all council members. The Columbus City Council has four-year terms, but the city councils of Cleveland and Cincinnati retain two-year terms. While there are exceptions, generally smaller communities are more likely to have four-year terms for city council, the larger ones two-year terms. Why the difference?

Possibly because larger urban areas with a history of municipal corruption and machine politics see two-year terms as a way of removing those council members who turn out to be bad apples before they spoil all the apples in the barrel. Cities and towns that have been plagued by corruption and that distrust politicians as a class want city councils to be on the short leash that two-year terms represent. A political machine or, in the case of Portsmouth, a clique, would more likely arise and persist in a city where members of city council had four rather than two years in which to scheme, collude, and corrupt. Communities that don’t have a history of crooked politics don’t want to go through the trouble and expense of having elections every two years. But large cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati may have learned that biennial elections are worth the trouble because they make the city council more accountable. They learned from experience, as we have bitterly in Portsmouth, that at least some politicians are not to be trusted. The same thing that makes four-year terms seem sensible in some communities makes them seem unwise in others. The Concerned Citizens believed four-year city council terms is asking for trouble, which is what Portsmouth got when it changed to four-year terms in  1985.

                                     Checks and Balances

The late Howard Baughman entering Marting Building during an open-house for the public

The three branches of government that the Founding Fathers established—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial—were intended  to serve as checks and balances on each other. The counterparts of those three branches of government are discernible in local government in the mayor or city manager (executive), the city council (legislative), and the city solicitor and city courts (judiciary). Unfortunately, too often at the local level, the three branches of government, rather than checking and balancing each other, are in cahoots, forming a tyranny that, with the connivance of the local media, represses and exploits the public they are supposed to be serving. If you want to see a cornpone version of the kind of tyranny our Founding Fathers were concerned about, Portsmouth provides a textbook example.  The Portsmouth city council, the mayor, the city solicitor, the auditor, with the collusion of long-time city clerk Jo Ann Aeh,  would regularly meet illegally in her office just before council meetings like a gang of safe-crackers planning a job. It was at one of these illegal backroom meetings that Marty Mohr orchestrated the appointment of Jerrold Albrecht to the city council as Austin Leedom reported online  in The Sentinel, dated 6 May 2007 (click here).  (For other Mohr antics, clear here.) While attending one of these closed-door illegal meetings, then councilman Marty Mohr was photographed through the city clerk's open door Joe Ferguson. The mugging Mohr responded defiantly by clenching his teeth for the camera. 

Marty Mohr mugging for camera

Just as Mayor Bauer predicted chaos would reign if he was recalled from office, and just as council president Carol Caudill said, “God help the city of Portsmouth” after she was recalled, the president of the city council in 2006, Howard Baughman, who was facing a recall, warned of the consequences if the  city council returned to two-year terms. Baughman remarked at the 25 June 2006  city council meeting, “There’s a learning curve when you become a city councilman.”  He did not think council members could possibly come to understand budgets in only two years. The real reason Baughman and others opposed two-year terms was not learning curves. Two-year terms were unacceptable because they might have  helped loosen the grip of the clique of lawyers and developers who controlled  the city through their puppets on the city council.  

The only other defense beside “learning curves” Baughman offered against two-year terms was that, “It would just be constant turmoil and turnover every two years.” Though all council members would run for election at the same time, it is unlikely that they would all be defeated. And if they were, that might be the best thing for the city. If biennial elections bring constant turmoil, how have the U.S. House of Representatives, the Ohio House of Representatives, and the city councils of many cities in Ohio managed to survive for as long as they have with two-year terms? Where is the turmoil in the following two-year term Ohio cities: Alliance, Amherst, Athens, Blue Ash, Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Falls, Lorrain, North Royalton, Norwood, Parma, Silverton, Warren, Wilmington, Wyoming, etc? There has been a lot of turmoil in the Portsmouth City Council since 1985  and much of it has been the result, directly and indirectly, of four-year terms and the recalls that would not likely have taken place if council members had faced the electorate every two years.    

Honest capable people in public office have no reason to object to two-year terms, because they can be assured of reelection if they do a good job. It’s the dishonest council members, and especially those who began their careers by being appointed rather than elected, who want the four-year terms to continue. Four-year terms for city council members helped perpetuate the political clique that controlled Portsmouth on behalf of the now discredited Southern Ohio Growth Partnership (SOGP).  I don’t know whether  Lance  Richardson  would turn out to be a good or bad councilman, but why did  he throw his hat in the ring only now, as a potential appointee, rather than run in a regular election, as I would think anyone not trying to cut corners  and short-change democracy would prefer to do? Let us hope Richardson, a self-proclaimed tax expert, is not another of those shipwrecked characters who save themselves from drowning in a sea of insignificance by clambering aboard the raft of city government that is already crowded with other failures, dreaming no doubt that the game of musical chairs might result someday in their becoming mayor, as Malone did when he won the booby prize as a result of Mayor Murray’s recall.

When you consider the council members who began their careers as appointees, the list is not encouraging.  Baughman was originally an appointee, when his friend and his next-door neighbor John Thatcher, conveniently resigned as Fifth Ward councilman. And then Baughman himself resigned before he could be recalled, making the appointment of John Haas possible in the endless appointee game of musical chairs that is orchestrated by Portsmouth’s powerful, unelected clique. Jerrold Albrecht first got on the council by appointment, and so did the notorious shyster Mike Mearan. James R. Saddler is the most recent appointment. Saddler had not shown any interest in city government previously, except when he had to appear in court for numerous speeding violations, including a DUI for which his license was suspended. For all those who prefer to begin their political careers by applying to the council for a vacated position rather than run in an election, we should have buttons that say not “I Voted,” but rather “I Applied.” But in any campaign to reduce the terms on city council to two years, Mearan should be the poster boy and he should be proudly wearing an “I Applied” button. 

Current First Ward councilman Kevin W. Johnson tried to begin his political career in Portsmouth when he applied to council to replace Tim Loper after Loper was forced to resign his seat when it was proved he was not living in the First Ward, the ward he represented, in violation of the city charter. To replace Loper, the city council appointed Mearan, arguably the most scandalous appointee in the history of the city,  rather than Kevin W. Johnson. 

I find the political jockeying to become council president that takes place among those council members, some of  whom were originally appointees, unseemly. When Jane Murray was recalled, David Malone, as president of the council, replaced her in spite of the fact he had finished fourth behind her in the previous mayoral election. Malone had been elected to the presidency and next in line to be mayor, by appointees such as the lawyer John Haas, his fellow bankrupt, who is yet another council member who was appointed  after  failing to succeed in his chosen field. It is almost as if there is an unwritten requirement that candidates must be failures, if not bankrupts,  before they will be considered as appointees. Who with any self respect would want to owe their presence on the council to an appointment by such a council? To revise the famous quote by Groucho Marx, “I don't want to belong to any city council  that would accept me as a member.”

John Haas: Portsmouth's Untenable City Solicitor

April 29, 2014, 4:04 pm

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The central problem with city government in Portsmouth is not the form of government it has, namely the mayoral or city manager variety. The central problem is the kind of men who run for and get elected to city government. The men who occupy public office  are for the most part failures. They are men, usually,  who have failed in business, in a profession, or in a trade, or who are not now or perhaps have not for a long time  been  gainfully employed and want the benefits and the prestige of holding  public office. No form of city government is going to work with incompetent city officials, whether they are elected or appointed, and whether the form of government is mayoral or city manager. 

As an example of an incompetent city official, take city solicitor John Haas. According to the Portsmouth Daily Times (29 April 2014), “Portsmouth City Solicitor John Haas says he cannot represent Portsmouth City Council when it comes to public records requests in the future.” Why not? Because, Haas told the PDT, the city council “has placed my office in an untenable position.” What does “untenable” mean? A tenant is “Someone  who pays rent to use or occupy land, a building, or other property owned by another.” The original and strict meaning of untenable is that an apartment or a house  or an office for some reason cannot be occupied, cannot be tenanted.

That is not the meaning of untenable that Haas has in mind, (if you will allow me the liberty of using “mind” in connection with him). Another meaning of untenable, and the one Haas apparently has in what passes for a mind is a place or a position or an office, such as the office of  city solicitor, that cannot be defended. But no one is attacking Haas or the office of city solicitor. They are rather proposing to change the office of city solicitor from an elective to an appointed office.  John Haas is obstructing city government by refusing to carry out one of his responsibilities as city manager because he doesn’t approve of the proposal of several councilmen to change the city solicitor position from an elective to an appointed position. It is hard to believe  that a lawyer would think he has the right to refuse to perform a duty of the  city solicitor because he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to change the office from elective to appointed. Changing any public office from elective to appointed or appointed to elective is a long, complicated, democratic  process, as is spelled out in the city charter.

      But it is Haas himself who is untenable, who is indefensible, who is not qualified to hold the office of city solicitor. He is not qualified  because he is in terms of his understanding of the law, incompetent. He doesn’t understand that by refusing to handle public records requests he is not fulfilling one of the duties of his office that he swore to perform. He cannot choose which of his duties he is going to perform and which he isn’t. The issue of whether the city solicitor should be elected, or whether it is a bad or good proposal,  is not the issue. At no level, local, state, or federal, does government work that way. But Portsmouth apparently is an exception and a public official is going to be allowed to choose which of his duties he performs and which he will not. Fire fighters are not allowed to choose which fires they are going to put out; police officers which laws they are going to enforce; sanitation workers which trash they are going to pick up;  and deadbeat dads are not allowed to decide which of their children they are going to pay child support for. But Haas is going to decide he is not going to handle public records requests and the Portsmouth Daily Times is not going to point this flagrant dereliction of duty out to its readers? That’s not just untenable, it’s intolerable. Oh, and two more things. Haas like two other council members, Kalb and Malone, have declared bankruptcy. And didn’t Haas first get his foot in the door of the city solicitor's office by being appointed? Isn't that how many of these untenable, bankrupt characters start their political careers, by being appointed? As Snuffy Smith would say, “Isn’t that a crock?”

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When you consider the council members who began their careers as appointees, the list is not encouraging. Baughman was originally an appointee, when his friend and his next-door neighbor John Thatcher, conveniently resigned as Fifth Ward councilman. And then Baughman himself resigned before he could be recalled, making the appointment of John Haas possible in the endless appointee game of musical chairs that is orchestrated by Portsmouth’s powerful, unelected clique. Jerrold Albrecht first got on the council by appointment, and so did the notorious shyster Mike Mearan. James R. Saddler is the most recent appointment. Saddler had not shown any interest in city government previously, except when he had to appear in court for numerous speeding violations, including a DUI for which his license was suspended. For all those who prefer to begin their political careers by applying to the council for a vacated position rather than run in an election, we should have buttons that say not “I Voted,” but rather “I Applied.” 
                 from “City Council Appointees: Portsmouth's Perennial Problem” 

Midsummer City Manager Moon Madness

May 24, 2014, 4:51 pm

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"Kevin W. Johnson is up to his usual tricks and  the moon is full."

Having a city manager form of government in Portsmouth is  the equivalent of a mid-summer full moon. The full moon brings out the craziness  in Kevin W. Johnson, who apparently doesn’t know the difference between  the  mayoral and  the  city manager form of government,  even though he is the one who instigated the charter change to city manager. Since  the change to  the city manager form of government is turning everything topsy-turvy, Johnson thinks the solution is to make more  changes to the city charter. So he recently proposed three more  charter changes, which with his typical underhandedness he began illegally lobbying several  other council members to support. Then unnamed parties  who apparently  think the city manager is the city’s chief executive,  urged Johnson  to drop two of the three proposed charter changes and let the city manager handle things,  which is what Johnson did.

The only charter change Johnson  is going to continue to push for is the one  that would repeal the charter amendment that limits what  the city can spend on capital projects without first getting approval from the voters. The reason the voters approved that  charter amendment was because city officials were seriously proposing to spend up to $12,000,000 (twelve million dollars!)  to renovate the worthless Marting’s building and the equally worthless former cable company building for city offices, which they would have had to raise city  taxes up to the moon to pay for since there was nothing like twelve million in the Capital Improvements budget.

The city manager is not the chief executive of Portsmouth, which has no chief executive per se. The executive powers once invested in the mayor are now distributed, diluted you might say,  among the members of the city council. The city manager is the servant of the city council. His job is to manage, not make policy. Considering  how incompetent and corrupt the majority of city council members have been historically,  giving them executive authority, along with their legislative authority, is a recipe for bedlam.

The successful lawyer  Frank Gerlach, the only person in the history of Portsmouth who served as both city manager and mayor, warned that the city manager form of government would not make things better, that  it would make things worse, and it has, especially when the moon is full and Kevin W. Johnson is up to his usual tricks.

Click below on other on other posts on Kevin W. Johnson

Political Puppets of Portsmouth

All Aboard!

Financial Black Mold

Gerlach Says No to City Manager

Haas Hassles Heather and the Kids

June 3, 2014, 10:02 am

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Do Some Porsche Owners Have a Screw Loose?

What follows is a timeline of the divorce and subsequent hearings and the trial to settle custody and child support issues between John Haas, who is now Portsmouth City Solicitor, and his wife Heather Haas. The timeline stretches ten years, from February 2004 to February 2014. Based on their past experience in court, the couple’s legal troubles are not  necessarily over. The complete, very long and complex public record is included in the Appendix below.

The Divorce 

• 
  
•             Feb. 16, 2004. Heather Haas  filed for divorce from attorney John Haas. She was living in Wheelersburg at the time, he on Circle Drive, in Portsmouth.  She was represented by Joan Garaczkowski, he by George L. Davis III and George L. Davis IV.
  ·         Feb. 17, 2004. Heather Haas filed for custody of the two children and financial support for them.  On that day she also filed for exclusive use of the family automobile, a 2001 BMW SUV.
  ·         Feb. 18, 2004. The Court  agreed to Heather’s request and granted her exclusive use of the BMW. On that same day the court issued a mutual restraining order, sending a certified letter to  Haas’  Circle Drive address. On March 4, that letter was returned after three failed attempts to deliver it.
  ·         March 3, 2004. Haas petitioned Court to have temporary shared custody of children.
  ·         March 18, 2004. Haas’ lawyers filed a motion to award him the exclusive possession of the BMW SUV.  After legal hearings before Judge Spears, John Haas was given exclusive use of the BMW, and Heather was to  receive $750 support for both children until such time as John Haas sold the BMW, which he was required to do no later than  November, 2004, at which time the child support would be increased to $950 a month for both children.
  ·         July 28, 2004. John Haas made a motion to reduce the child support to his ex-wife, and she filed a counter motion requesting the court to reject his  motion to reduce child support.
  ·         Aug 4,  2004.  Court rules that in the event Haas filed for bankruptcy  either party may then file a motion for a review of the support payment.
  ·         Aug. 7, 2004, a letter addressed to Haas was returned and marked not deliverable as addressed.
  ·         Nov. 9, 20. Haas and Heather were granted a divorce on the grounds of incompatibility.
  ·         August 16, 2006. The Court  ordered that the protracted dispute between Haas and his ex-wife over support payments be mediated through the in-house program of the Common Pleas Court.
  ·         July 27, 2007. Claiming  shared parenting—he had primary custody of daughter—was costing him more than he bargained for, Haas succeeded in getting child support payments reduced from $950 to $656 a month
  ·         Aug 19, 2010. Heather requests the court to end shared custody and give her exclusive custody of both children.
  ·         Aug 23, 2010. Heather charges Haas with failure to pay support.
  ·         Aug 26, 2010. Court orders Haas to appear in court for failure to pay child support.
  ·         Sept. 13, 2010. Letter to Haas about failure to pay support returned unclaimed.
  ·         Oct. 4, 2010. John Haas makes motion to have him and Heather evaluated psychologically.
  ·         June 9, 2011. Heather files another motion to have exclusive custody of both children.
  ·         June 1, 2011. The Court appoints a GAL, a guardian,  to mediate differences between plaintiff and defendant over child custody and support, each to pay $300 for that mediation.
  ·         July 15, 2011. The Court appoints GAL for children.
  The Trial
  ·         Feb. 2, 2012.  A retired judge from Pike County presides in trial in Scioto County Court, Domestic Division,  in case involving John Haas and Heather Haas to determine the custody of the children and amount of support of them by John Haas.
  ·         June 14, 2012. Court declares that Heather Haas will have residential custody of her daughter, as as well as of her son
  ·         Oct. 16, 2012. Haas files motion for protective order. [Against Heather Haas?]
  ·         April 3, 2013. Heather Haas is ordered to appear before Magistrate Michael L. Jones and show cause why she should not be punished for contempt of court.
  ·         May 7, 2013. Letter addressed to John Haas returned.
  ·         July 16, 2013. The court stipulated John Haas’ monthly support obligations as follows: he would pay $277  for his son and $524 for his daughter, in addition to paying for insurance,  these amounts to be withheld from his monthly salary from the city of Portsmouth where he was employed as city solicitor.
  ·         Dec. 31, 2013. John Haas was notified that he was 60 days past due in payment of his costs of trial.
  ·         Feb. 21, 2014. Heather Haas was notified she was 30 days past due in payment of her costs of trial.
  
  

Comment

The long history of legal and costly wrangling between City Solicitor Haas and Heather Haas, which began in 2004, went  on for a decade, and may not be  over yet. Their divorce  would normally not be anybody’s business but their  own. But Haas is a spendthrift public official and his chronic financial problems affected not only  his family but also the citizens of Portsmouth whose legal servant he is supposed to be.  The major interest in Haas’ previous  life, as Austin Leedom has documented,  was collecting expensive  pre-owned sports cars,  which he had a stable of at one time, as if he was Jay Leno and not a soon-to-be-bankrupt, small-town lawyer. Haas  apparently would not be caught dead driving a  Chevrolet, Pontiac or  Dodge. He had Grand Prix  taste on a Portsmouth Raceway budget.

Because of Haas’ aversion to paying child support, Austin Leedom dubbed him “Portsmouth’s  Deadbeat Dad of the Decade.” If Haas cared about  his  family half as much as he cared about  his Porsches,  maybe the marriage would not have ended in a bitter divorce. The first thing he and his wife struggled over was who would get custody of the family 2001 BMW  SUV. Back in 2001, the  manufacturer’s suggested retail price was about $47,000, depending on model and extras. In terms of cost, the lawyers Haas engaged, George L. Davis, III and IV,  were more like BMWs than Fords. When it came to everything except support for his children, Haas was a high roller. The money Haas spent or went in hock for in his ten year legal struggle  to short-change his family would  have enabled them to live comfortably during those ten years and beyond, but he nickled and dimed them to death. He Porsched them to the limit.

At one point in the trial Haas wanted Heather Haas to undergo a psychological examination. If she didn’t have serious psychological problems before she married him, she very well might have after a decade of mud-wrestling with him in court.

The mental and ethical level of most of the men who get elected or too often get appointed to public office in Portsmouth is notoriously low, as we will possibly discover again when the council appoints a replacement for Sixth Ward council president Steve Sturgill. Whether they are in a trade or a profession makes little difference. Haas is no exception to that rule. He showed contempt for the law as the defendant in his divorce trial--how many times did he refuse to accept letters sent by the Court? He also showed his contempt  in vowing not to respond to any public records requests that might end up making the city solicitor’s office  appointive rather than elective.  How ironic that Haas’ precursor as city solicitor, the equally legally incompetent Mike Jones, should turn out to be one of the magistrates who presided at Haas' trial. Knowing him as well as they do, Haas' peers wouldn't appoint him dog catcher.  That was why he panicked at the idea of the city solicitor being made an appointive rather than elective office.

The Court knew better than to trust Haas to pay child support on time. The child support was withheld from his paycheck. Imagine, the chief legal officer of the city could not be trusted to pay child support. The lengths  Haas went to try to  reduce or  eliminate child support included declaring bankruptcy. Politics is the next-to-the-last refuge for Portsmouth's ethically challenged failures and misfits. Their last refuge is bankruptcy.

Appendix

04DR000082

Case Type:

DIVORCE

Case Status:

CLOSED

File Date:

02/17/2004

Case Judge:

BUCKLER, JERRY L

Next Event:

·         All Information

·         Party

·         Docket

·         Event

·         Disposition

Party Information

HAAS, HEATHER - PLAINTIFF

DOB

Disposition

Disp Date

Address

8383 GREEN STREET

WHEELERSBURG, OH  45694

Alias

Attorney/Bar Code	Phone Number
GARACZKOWSKI, JOAN M (GARAC)	(740)354-5826

More Party Information

HAAS, JOHN - DEFENDANT

DOB

Disposition

Disp Date

Address

2834 CIRCLE DRIVE

PORTSMOUTH, OH  45662

Alias

Attorney/Bar Code	Phone Number
DAVIS, III, GEORGE L (DAVIS)	(740)353-4661
DAVIS, IV, GEORGE L (GDAVIS)	(740)353-4661

More Party Information

Docket Information

Date	Docket Text
02/17/2004	CONVERSION FREE FORM ATTORNEY The Following Attorneys were entered free form in Writs and were not associated to a Courtview Attorney. Free Form Attorneys for JOHN HAAS Free Form Attorneys for GUARDIAN AD LITEM Free Form Attorneys for GUARDIAN AD LITEM SHER BLACK 295 PEARL ST PO BOX 664 JACKSON, OH 45640 JOHN F BERRY 707 SIXTH STREET PORTSMOUTH OH 45662 FAX 353-1649 SHER BLACK 295 PEARL ST PO BOX 664 JACKSON, OH 45640
02/17/2004	COMPLAINT FOR DIVORCE
02/17/2004	APPLICATION FOR CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES NON-PUBLIC ASSISTANCE APPLICANT
02/17/2004	EXPENSE AFFIDAVIT AND MOTION FOR CUSTODY AND SUPPORT
02/17/2004	AFFIDAVIT UCCJA
02/17/2004	MOTION FOR EXCLUSIVE USE OF VEHICLE
02/18/2004	MUTUAL RESTRAINING ORDER 519/145
02/18/2004	ORDER - UPON MOTION OF PTIFF AND FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT PTIFF SHALL HAVE EXCLUSIVE USE OF THE PARTIES BMWSUV UNTIL FURTHER ORDER OF THIS COURT 519/146
02/18/2004	ISSUED INJUNCTION WTIH MUTUAL RESTRAINING ORDER AND ORDER TO DEFT BY CERT MAIL
02/19/2004	ACKNOWLEDGMENT, WAIVER OF SERVICE
02/20/2004	ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM OF DEFENDANT
03/02/2004	MOTION FOR ORDER OF TEMPORARY SHARED PARENTING
03/02/2004	FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE AFFIDAVIT OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS
03/04/2004	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: JOHN HAAS; ENVELOPE MARKED UNCLAIMED 3 ATTEMPTS
03/04/2004	FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE AFFIDAVIT (PLAINTIFF)
03/12/2004	SUPPLEMENTAL AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN HAAS ON TEMPORARY ORDERS
03/17/2004	JUDGMENT ENTRY OF DECISION TEMPORARY ORDER 521/120
03/17/2004	DOMESTIC PRE-TRIAL ORDER 521/119
03/18/2004	MOTION OF DEFENDANT, JOHN HAAS, TO VACATE EXCLUSIVE POSSESSION OF 2001 BMV SUV AND TO AWARD HIM EXCLUSIVE POSSESSION OF THE PARTIES' 2001 BMW SUV
03/25/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION TO VACATE EXCLUSIVE POSSISSION AND AWARD EXCLUSIVE POSSESSION; ON APRIL 29, 2004, AT 1:15PM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E SPEARS, ROOM 303
03/30/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. ORAL HEARING ON TEMP ORDERS FILED 3-17-04; ON APRIL 22, 2004 AT 9:00AM BEFORE MAG JAY S WILLIS
04/15/2004	CERT AND SIGNED SUBPOENAS FOR: PATRICIA GEORGE AND CATHY MAYBERRY TO APPEAR ON APRIL 22, 2004 @ 9:00 AM BEFORE DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT
04/23/2004	DEFT, JOHN HAAS', FIRST SET OF INTERROGATORIES, REQUESTS FOR ADMISSIONS AND REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS PROPOUNDED TO PTIFF, HEATHER HAAS
04/29/2004	PRETRIAL STATEMENT OF DEFENDANT, JOHN HAAS
05/04/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. OBJECTIONS OF HEATHER HAAS TO TEMPORARY ORDERS; ON MAY 18, 2004, AT 3:00PM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID SPEARS
05/04/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. FINAL CONTESTED; (2 DAYS) SEPT. 28, 2004, AT 9:00AM AND OCTOBER 5, 2004, AT 9:00AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID SPEARS, ROOM 303
05/04/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. FINAL PRETRIAL; AUGUST 17, 2004, AT 11:00AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID SPEARS, ROOM 303
05/04/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION TO VACATE EXCLUSIVE USE ORDER; ON MAY 18, 2004, AT 3:00PM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID SPEARS
05/12/2004	NOTICE OF COMPLIANCE WITH PLTF'S FIRST REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
06/28/2004	CIV.RULE 75(N) MOTION OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS
07/07/2004	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION OF DEFENDANT - SET BEFORE MAGISTRATE WILLIS, DOEMSTIC RELATIONS COURT ON AUGUST 17, 2004 @ 11:00 AM
08/03/2004	ISSUED SUBPOENA TO ATTY J. BERRY'S OFFICE TO SERVE PATRICIA GEORGE TO APPEAR ON AUGUST 17, 2004 @ 11:00 AM
08/04/2004	AGREED ENTRY - IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED THAT: EFFECTIVE JUNE 1, 2004, DEFT SHALL PAY TO PTIFF, AS AND FOR CHILD SUPPORT, THE SUM OF $750.00 PER MONTH PLUS ADM COSTS. ONCE DEFT HAS SOLD THE BMW, HE SHALL PAY ADDITIONAL $200 PER MONTH TO PTIFF, MODIFYING THE $750 PER MONTH AMT TO, THE SUM OF 950.00 PER MONTH, PLUS ADM COSTS IN THE AMT OF $19.00 PER MONTH. THIS AMT SHALL BE EFFECTIVE THE FIRST MONTH AFTER THE BMW IS SOLD; AND SHALL BECOME EFFECTIVE NO LATER THAN NOV, 2004. IN THE EVENT THAT DEFT FILES BANKUPTCY, EITHER PARTY MAY FILE A MOTION FOR A REVIEW OF THE SUPPORT ORDER. MONTHLY PYMTS IN THE AMT OF $950.00 SHALL CONTINUE UNTIL FURTHER ORDER OF THE COURT. THE PARTIES AGREE, AND THE COURT ORDERS THAT SUMMER PARENTING TIME SHALL ALTERNATE ON A WEEKLY BASIS FROM SUNDAY AT 6:00 PM TO SUNDAY AT 6:00 PM 532/69
08/13/2004	NOTICE OF SUBMISSION
08/16/2004	UPDATED PRETRIAL STATEMENT OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS
08/25/2004	PROPOSAL OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS, FOR INTERIM ALLOCATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES UNTIL FINAL ORDERS
08/31/2004	PLTF'S RESPONSE MOTION TO PROPOSAL OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS, FOR INTERIM ALLOCATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES UNTIL FINAL ORDERS
09/01/2004	JUDGMENT ENTRY; IT IS ORDERED THAT DEFT SHALL HAVE PARENTING TIME WITH BOTH CHILDREN PURSUANT TO LOCAL RULE 6, LOCAL, AGE 6-11 YEARS. IN ADDITION TO THE PARENTING TIME PROVIDED IN THE RULE, DEFT SHALL HAVE AN ADDITIONAL OVERNIGHT ON WEDNESDAYS IN WEEKS 2 AND 4. SAID ADDITIONAL OVERNIGHTS SHALL COMMENCE AT 6:00PM ON WEDNESDAYS. ALL OTHER PROVISIONS OF RULE 6 SHALL APPLY. THIS SCHEDULE SHALL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL THE FURTHER ORDER OF THE COURT 534/101
09/08/2004	RETURN FILED: SERVED SUBPOENA ON PRESTIGE MORTGAGE BY ATTY JOHN B ERRY ON SEPT 3, 2004 BY PERSONAL SERVICE
09/15/2004	ISSUED SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM TO ATTY BERRY'S OFFICE FOR SERVICE UPON JAMES MCGINNIS, D.O.
09/15/2004	ISSUED SUBPOENA FOR SANDY SINCLAIR TO APPEAR ON SEPT 28, 2004 @ 9:00 AM TO ATTY BERRY'S OFFICE
09/20/2004	MOTION FOR DECREE OF SHARED PARENTING (DEFT)
09/22/2004	DEFENDANT, JOHN HAAS' DISCLOSURE OF WITNESSES AND EXHIBITS
09/24/2004	RETURN FILED: SERVED SANDY SINCLAIR; SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM; PERSONALLY ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2004 BY ATTY JOHN BERRY
09/28/2004	MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT 536/72
09/28/2004	CERTIFICATE FOR COURT STENOGRAPHER'S FEES
11/04/2004	NOTICE OF DISMISSAL - THE ENTRY HAVING NOT BEEN PRESENTED IN THIS CASE, COUNSEL FOR THE PARTIES WILLTAKE NOTE THAT THE WITHIN MATTER WILL BE ADMINISTRATIVELY DISMISSED FOR FAILURE TO SUBMIT THE JUDGMENT ENTRY WITHIN SEVEN (7) DAYS UNLESS GOOD CAUSE IS SHOWN WHY IT SHOULD NOT BE SO DISMISSED. IT IS THE ORDER OF THIS COURT THAT THIS MATTER BE SCHEDULED FOR HEARING UPON THE COURT'S MOTION TO DISMISS ON NOVEMBER 16, 2004 @ 1:30 PM. PRESENTATION OF SAID JUDGMENT ENTRYOR CAUSE SHOWN BEFORE NOVEMBER 16, 2004 SHALL CANCEL SAID HEARING 539/52
11/09/2004	SHARED PARENTING DECREE; IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED THAT THE COURT APPROVES SHARED PARENTING UNDER THE TERMS OF THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN AS MODIFIED BY THE MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT OF THE PARTIES AND THE EVIDENCE 539/94
11/09/2004	AGREED JUDGMENT DECREE OF DIVORCE; IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED BY THE COURT THAT EACH PARTY IS ENTITLED TO AND IS HEREBY GRANTED A DIVORCE BASED ON THE GROUNDS OF INCOMPATIBILITY AND THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT HERETOFORE EXISTING BETWEEN HEATHER HAAS AND JOHN HAAS BE, AND THE SAME IS, HEREBY DISSOLVED AND HELD FOR NAUGHT, AND BOTH PARTIES ARE HEREBY RELEASED FROM THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE SAME; IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED THAT ALL RESTRAINING ORDERS PREVIOUSLY ISSUED AGAINST ALL PARTIES ARE RELEASED AND HELD FOR NAUGHT; COSTS ABOVE DEPOSIT TO BE SPLIT BETWEEN PLTF AND DEFT. COSTS BELOW DEPOSIT TO BE PAID BY PLTF 539/93
11/09/2004	ISSUED CC OF SHARED PARENTING DECREE AND JUDGMENT DECREE OF DIVORCE TO PLTF AND DEFT BY CERT MAIL
11/15/2004	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED HEATHER HAAS/S; HEATHER HAAS 11-12-04
11/23/2004	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED JOHN HAAS/S; LANA CRAWFORD 11-22-04
06/03/2005	ENTRY ADOPTING ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUSTMENT HEARING DECISION ALL COSTS OF THE REVIEW SHALL BE ASSESSED TO CSEA 553/134
07/07/2006	MOTION OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS TO MODIFY
07/10/2006	ISSUED CC OF MOTION TO PTIFF BY CERT MAIL
07/14/2006	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED HEATHER HAAS/S; HEATHER HAAS 7-13-06
07/19/2006	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION TO MODIFY ON 8/11/06 AT 10:00 AM BEFORE DAVID E. SPEARS
07/28/2006	MOTION OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS, TO MODIFY
07/31/2006	ISSUED MOTION OF DEFT, JOHN HAAS, TO MODIFY UPON PLTF BY CERT MAIL
07/31/2006	MOTION TO MODIFY CHILD SUPPORT: NOW COMES PLTF, HEATHER HAAS, BY AND THROUGH COUNSEL, AND RESPECTFULLY REQUESTS THE COURT MODIFY THE CHILD SUPPORT ORDER IN THE ABOVE- CAPTIONED CASE.
07/31/2006	MOTION TO DISMISS: NOW COMES PLTF, HEATHER HAAS, BY AND THROUGH COUNSEL, AND RESPECTFULLY REQUESTS THE COURT DISMISS DEFT'S MOTION FILED HEREIN.
07/31/2006	ISSUED MOTION TO MODIFY CHILD SUPPORT AND MOTION TO DISMISS UPON JOHN HAAS BY CERT MAIL
08/04/2006	PRECIPE FOR SUBPOENA; TO THE CLERK TO PREPARE SUBPOENAS FOR CAROLYN BAKER & LOIS BARNETT TO APPEAR AT THE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 11, 2006 AT 9:00AM AT THE SCIOTO COUNTY COMMON PLEAS COURT BEFORE THE HONORABLE DAVID SPEARS ON BEHALF OF PLTF.
08/04/2006	MOTION TO DESIGNATE PROCESS SERVER: NOW COMES PLTF, HEATHER HAAS, BY AND THROUGH COUNSEL AND RESPECTFULLY REQUESTS THIS COURT APPOINT ERIC HYATT, WHO IS NOT A PARTY TO THE ACTION, AND TO DESIGNATE AS PROCESS SERVER IN THE ABOVE-CITED CASE FOR THE PURPOSE OF SERVING SUBPOENAS UPON CAROLYN BAKER, 661 JO-ELL LANE, WHEELERSBURG OHIO AND LOIS BARNETT, 98 TURKEY FOOT RD, WHEELERSBURG, OHIO, TO THE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR THE 11TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2006 COMMENCING AT 9:00AM BEFORE THE HONORABLE JUDGE DAVID E SPEARS, SCIOTO COUNTY DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT
08/04/2006	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED HEATHER HAAS/S; RALPH E WILCOXON 8-3-06
08/07/2006	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: JOHN HAAS; ENVELOPE MARKED RETURN TO SENDER, NOT DELIVERABLE AS ADDRESSED, UNABLE TO FORWARD
08/07/2006	DEFENDANT, JOHN HAAS', DISCLOSURE OF WITNESSES AND EXHIBITS
08/07/2006	ORDER DESIGNATING PROCESS SERVER: ON MOTION OF PLTF, THE COURT ORDERS THAT ERIC HYATT, WHO IS NOT A PARTY TO THE ACTION, IS DESIGNATED AS PROCESS SERVER IN THE ABOVE-CITED CASE FOR THE PURPOSE OF SERVING SUBPOENAS UPON CAROLYN BAKER, 661 JO-ELL LANE, WHEELERSBURG, OH AND LOIS BARNETT, 98 TURKEY FOOT RD, WHEELERSBURG, OH, TO THE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR THE 11TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2006 COMMENCING AT 9:00AM BEFORE THE HONORABLE JUDGE DAVID E SPEARS 584/52
08/08/2006	ISSUED SUBPOENA'S TO ATTY GARACZKOWSKI'S OFFICE FOR PERSONAL SERVICE UPON CAROLYN BAKER AND LOIS BARNETT BY PROCESS SERVER ERIC HYATT 584/52
08/11/2006	MEMORANDUM CONTRA MOTION TO DISMISS
08/11/2006	RETURN FILED: SERVED LOIS BARNETT; SUBPOENA; PERSONALLY ON AUGUST 8, 2006 BY PROCESS SERVER ERIC HYATT
08/15/2006	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION TO MODIFY; OCTOBER 19, 2006 @ 9:00AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID SPEARS, ROOM 303
08/16/2006	JUDGMENT ENTRY - IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT THE ABOVE CAPTIONED CASE IS REFERRED TO MEDIATION BY AND THROUGH THE IN-HOUSE MEDIATION PROGRAM IN ACCORDANCE WITH SCIOTO COUNTY DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT LOCAL RULE IMPLEMENTING MEDIATION. SHARON BELL, SERVING AS MEDIATOR FOR THE SCIOTO COUNTY COMMON PLEAS COURT, WILL CONDUCT THE MEDIATION. ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THE MEDIATION PROCESS SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO SHARON BELL AT 740-355-8368 THE MEDIATION IS SCHEDULED FOR: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2006 @ 9:00 AM 585/34
10/04/2006	DOMESTIC RELATIONS MEDIATION STATUS REPORT
10/18/2006	PLAINTIFF'S WITNESS LIST: ANDY COMPLIMENT CAROLYN BAKER SUE KISER LOIS BARNETT
10/18/2006	PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT LIST
10/18/2006	RETURN FILED: SERVED ANDY COMPLIMENT; SUBPOENA; PERSONALLY ON OCTOBER 18, 2006 BY ATTY GARACZKOWSKI
10/18/2006	RETURN FILED: SERVED LOIS BURNETT; SUBPOENA; PERSONALLY ON OCTOBER 18, 2006 BY ATTY GARACZKOWSKI
10/18/2006	RETURN FILED: SERVED SUE KISER; SUBPOENA; PERSONALLY ON OCTOBER 18, 2006 BY ATTY JOAN GARACZKOWSKI
10/18/2006	RETURN FILED: SERVED CAROLYN BAKER; SUBPOENA; PERSONALLY ON OCTOBER 18, 2006 BY ATTY GARACZKOWSKI
10/18/2006	ISSUED SUBPOENA'S TO ATTY JOAN GARACZKOWSKI TO BE SERVED UPON ANDY COMPLIMENT; SUE KISER, LOIS BURNETT AND CAROLYN BAKER
10/19/2006	DEFENDANT, JOHN HAAS' SUPPLEMENT DISCLOSURE OF EXHIBITS
10/19/2006	WITNESS FEES ADDED FOR ANDY COMPLIMENT
10/23/2006	NOTICE OF HEARING. HEARING ON MOTION TO MODIFY; DECEMBER 14, 2006 @ 9:00AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E SPEARS, ROOM 303
12/13/2006	ISSUED SUBPOENA'S TO ATTY JOAN GARACZKOWSKI'S OFFICE FOR PERSONAL SERVICE UPON LOIS BURNETT, SUE KISER, CAROLYN BAKER AND ANDY COMPLIMENT
12/14/2006	DEFENDANT, JOHN HAAS', THIRD SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURE OF EXHIBITS
12/14/2006	CERTIFICATE FOR COURT STENOGRAPHER'S FEES
12/14/2006	WITNESS FEES ADDED FOR CAROLYN BAKER (DEC. 14, 2006) AND (OCTOBER 19, 2006)
12/14/2006	WITNESS FEES FILED (ANDY COMPLIMENT)
12/20/2006	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION TO MODIFY - SET BEFORE THE HONORABLE JUDGE DAVID E SPEARS, DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT ON 1-18-07 @ 9:00 AM
01/17/2007	ISSUED SUBPOENA'S TO ATTY GARACZKOWSKI FOR PERSONAL SERVICE UPON CRYSTAL CONN; SUE KISER AND LOIS BURNETT TO APPEAR ON JANUARY 18, 2007 @ 9:00AM AND TESTIFY AS A WITNESS
01/18/2007	CERTIFICATE FOR COURT STENOGRAPHER'S FEES
01/19/2007	NOTICE OF HEARING. MOTION TO MODIFY; FEBRUARY 14, 2007 @ 2:00PM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID SPEARS, ROOM 303
02/26/2007	MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE: NOW COMES COUNSEL JOAN GARACZKOWSKI ATTY FOR HEATHER HAAS, BY AND THROUGH COUNSEL AND RESPECTFULLY REQUESTS THIS HONORABLE COURT TO CONTINUE THE TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUARY 14, 2007 AT 3:00PM
03/21/2007	ENTRY OF CONTINUANCE: UPON MOTION FILED BY COUNSEL FOR DEFT AND FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR FEBRUAY 14, AT 3:00PM IS HEREBY CONTINUED TO THE 9TH DAY OF APRIL, 2007 AT 10:00AM 601/111
04/06/2007	PLAINTIFF'S SUPLEMENTAL WITNESS LIST
04/09/2007	ISSUED SUBPOENA TO ATTY GARACZKOWSKI'S OFFICE FOR SERVICE UPON DORA CARMON
04/09/2007	CERTIFICATE FOR COURT STENOGRAPHER'S FEES
05/14/2007	POST TRIAL BRIEF OF JOHN R HAAS
05/16/2007	PLAINTIFF'S POST TRIAL BRIEF
06/15/2007	JUDGMENT ENTRY: IN ORDER TO MAKE AN APPROPRIATE CHILD SUPPORT ORDER THE COURT NEEDS MORE FINANCIAL INFORMATION FROM THE PARTIES. PLTF AND DEFT SHALL BOTH PROVIDE THE COURT WITH COPIES OF ALL W-2'S, 1099'S OR OTHER EVIDENCE OF INCOME FROM ALL SOURCES FOR THE YEAR 2006. PLTF HAS ALREADY PROVIDED A COPY OF THE FIRST TWO PAGES OF HER FORM 1040. HOWEVER, THE COURT ORDERS THAT BOTH PARTIES PROVIDE THE COURT WITH COPIES OF THEIR COMPLETE 2006 IRS TAX RETURN. SAID DOCUMENTS SHALL BE PROVIDED TO THE COURT BY JUNE 29, 2007. 608/156
07/03/2007	NOTICE OF FILING PER COURT ORDER OF 6-15-07
07/26/2007	1040 U.S. INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX RETURN 2006 (HEATHER HAAS)
07/27/2007	DECISION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY: THIS CAUSE CAME ON UPON A MOTION FILED BY THE DEFT ON JULY 7, 2006, REQUESTING THE COURT TO MODIFY THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN THE PARTIES ENTERED INTO AT THE TIME OF THEIR DIVORCE TO NAME HIM THE RESIDENTIAL PARENT FOR SCHOOL PLACEMENT PURPOSES. ON JULY 28, 2006, DEFT FILED ANOTHER MOTION SEEKING TO MODIFY THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN AND TO MODIFY THE CHILD SUPPORT FROM THE AMOUNT THAT WAS DETERMINED BY THE CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AGENCY DURING AN ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUSTMENT. DEFT WANTS THE CHILD SUPPORT MODIFIED DUE TO THE SHARED PARENTING. ALSO, THE PARTIES DID AGREE TO MODIFY THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN ALTERNATING THE CHILDREN WEEK-TO-WEEK BEGINNING ON MONDAYS INSTEAD AS IT HAS BEEN DONE AND THE COURT APPROVES SAID MODIFICATION AND IT IS SO ORDERED. ON JULY 31, 2006, PLTF FILED A MOTION TO MODIFY CHILD SUPPORT AND THERE WAS ANOTHER MOTION FILED; HOWEVER, THAT MOTION HAS NOW BECOME MOOT. IT IS ORDERED PLTF SHALL REMAIN THE RESIDENTIAL PARENT FOR SCHOOL PLACEMENT PURPOSES. THA ATTACHED GUIDELINE REFLECTS DEFT SHOULD PAY AS CHILD SUPPORT THE SUM OF $856.82 PER MONTH PLUS THE PROCESSING CHARGE. NO EVIDENCE WAS OFFERED REGARDING HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS OR CHILD CARE EXPENSES. DEFT IS REQUESTING A DEVIATION OF $200.00 PER MONTH DUE THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN. THE COURT FINDS SAID REQUEST REASONABLE AND WELL-TAKEN. THE COURT FINDS THAT PURSUANT TO O.R.C. 3119.23(D), DEFT HAS EXTENDED PARENTING TIME AS HE HAS THE CHILDREN HALF THE TIME AND HAS ADDITIONAL COST AS A RESULT. THE COURT FINDS THE AMOUNT CALCULATED PURSUANT TO THE THE ATTACHED GUIDELINE WOULD BE UNJUST. THEREFORE, A DEVIATION IS ALLOWED IN THE SUM OF $200.00 PER MONTH. DEFT SHALL PAY AS CHILD SUPPORT THE SUM OF $656.82 PER MONTH, PLUS THE PROCESSING CHARGE, PAYABLE THROUGH THE SCIOTO CO CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AGENCY BY PAYROLL WITHHOLDING EFFECTIVE JULY 28, 2006. DEFT SHALL CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE MINOR CHILDREN AND AND UNINSURED MEDICAL EXPENSES SHALL BE PAID BY THE PARTIES PURSUANT TO THE PERCENTAGES OF THEIR INCOMES ON LINE 16 OF THE GUIDELINE. THE PRIOR ORDER REGARDING TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR THE CHILDREN SHALL REMAIN IN EFFECT. COSTS ARE ASSESSED EQUALLY TO THE PARTIES 611/4
05/30/2008	NOTICE OF HEARING. ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUSTMENT HEARING ON 6/24/08 AT 10:00 AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E. SPEARS
06/20/2008	PLTF'S MOTION TO CONTINUE THE HEARING SET FOR 6/24/08 AT 10:00 AM
06/24/2008	ENTRY OF CONTINUANCE: THE HEARING SET FOR 6/24/08 AT 10:00 AM IS CONTINUED TO 8/27/08 AT 10:30 AM 632/78
08/15/2008	DEFT'S MOTION TO CONTINUE THE HEARING SET FOR 8/17/08
08/26/2008	ENTRY: THE ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUSTMENT HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 8/27/08 IS CONTINUED. 636/10
09/26/2008	DISMISSAL ENTRY: NOW COMES PLTF AND DISMISSES WITHOUT PREJUDICE HER REQUEST FOR AN ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUSTMENT HEARING. COURT COSTS ASSESSED TO PLTF.
08/19/2010	PLTF'S MOTION TO TERMINATE SHARED PARENTING AND VEST FULL CUSTODY WITH PLTF
08/19/2010	UCCJEA AFFIDAVIT
08/23/2010	ISSUED CERT COPY OF MOTION AND UCCJEA TO DEFT BY CERT MAIL.
08/23/2010	PLTF'S MOTION FOR CONTEMPT OF FAILURE TO PAY CHILD SUPPORT
08/24/2010	ISSUED CERT COPY OF MOTION FOR CONTEMPT TO DEFT BY CERT MAIL
08/26/2010	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED JOHN HAAS S/JOHN HAAS 8/25/10
08/26/2010	ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE - THE MOTION DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS A PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT DEFT IS IN CONTEMPT OF THIS COURT'S ORDERS AND ORDERS THAT JOHN HAAS APPEAR BEFORE MAGISTRATE JAY S. WILLIS, AT 602 7TH STREET DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT ROOM 304, PORTSMOUTH, OHIO 45662 ON 11/4/10 AT 1:30 PM TO SHOW CAUSE WHY HE SHOULD NOT BE PUNISHED FOR CIRMINAL AND OR CIVIL CONTEMPT OF COURT. 682/113
08/26/2010	NOTICE OF HEARING ISSUED WITH CERT COPY OF ORDER TO SHOW TO DEFT BY CERT MAIL.
08/31/2010	DEFT'S MOTION TO CONTINUE THE HEARING SET FOR 11/4/10 AT 1:30 PM
08/31/2010	ENTRY OF APPEARANCE: ATTY GEORGE L. DAVIS, III FOR DEFT
09/02/2010	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED JOHN HAAS SK. PRATER 9/1/10
09/08/2010	JUDGMENT ENTRY: THE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 11/4/10 AT 1:30 PM IS CONTINUED TO 11/10/10 AT 10:00 AM TO NOON. 683/71
09/13/2010	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: JOHN HAAS - UNCLAIMED (NOH, ORDER)
09/15/2010	RE-ISSUED NOTICE OF HEARING WITH CERT COPY OF ORDER TO DEFT BY REGULAR US MAIL WITH CERT OF MAILING.
09/20/2010	CERTIFICATE OF MAILING TO: JOHN HAAS ON 9/16/10
10/04/2010	DEFT'S MOTION FOR PARTIES TO HAVE PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS
10/15/2010	NOTICE OF HEARING. HEARING ON MOTION - ON 11/10/2010 @ 10:00 AM - BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E. SPEARS
10/28/2010	PLTF'S WITNESS AND EXHIBIT LIST
11/08/2010	PLTF'S MOTION TO CONTINUE THE HEARING SET FOR 11/10/10 AT 10:00 AM
11/09/2010	ENTRY OF CONTINUANCE: THE HEARING SET FOR 11/10/10 AT 10:00 AM IS CONTINUED TO 1/31/11 AT 1:30 PM 687/24
01/18/2011	PRAECIPE FOR SUBPOENA FILED BY ATTY FOR PLTF
01/18/2011	ISSUED SUBPENAS TO THE FOLLOWING TO APPEAR ON 1/31/2011 @ 1:30 ON BEHALF OF THE PLTF: - LEESA MOWERY - BARRY SPRADLIN - ANGELA MUNN - MELISSA FOSTER (ISSUED BY CERT. MAIL SERVICE)
01/18/2011	PLTF'S SUPPLEMENTAL EXHIBIT LIST
01/21/2011	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED LESSA MOWERY - 1/20/2011 - SIGNED BY LISA RADY
01/24/2011	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED BARRY SPRADLIN S/JAMES SPRADLIN 1/20/11
01/24/2011	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED MELISSA FOSTER S/HELEN FOSTER 1/20/11
01/27/2011	PLTF'S MOTION TO CONVERT HEARING TO A PRE-TRIAL
01/27/2011	ENTRY: THE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR 1/31/11 AT 1:30 PM IS COVERTED TO A PRE-TRIAL.
02/07/2011	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: ANGELA MUNN - UNCLAIMED (SUBPOENA FOR 1/31/11) (DID NOT RE-ISSUE)
04/22/2011	NOTICE OF HEARING. STATUS CONFERENCE - 15 MIN ON 5/31/11 AT 10:15 AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E. SPEARS
05/09/2011	PLTF'S MOTION TO TERMINATE SHARED PARENTING AND VEST FULL CUSTODY WITH PLTF
05/09/2011	PLTF'S RENEWED MOTION TO TERMINATE SHARED PARENTING PLAN AND VEST FULL CUSTODY WITH PLTF
05/10/2011	INFORMATION FOR PARENTING PROCEEDING AFFIDAVIT R.C.312723(A) OF PLTF
06/01/2011	JUDGMENT ENTRY: THIS MATTER CAME BEFORE THE COURT UPON ORAL MOTION OF THE PARTIES REQUESTING THAT A GAL BE APPOINTED IN THE ABOVE MATTER. THE COURT, AFTER CONSIDERING THE SAME, FINDS SAID MOTION IS WELL-TAKEN AND ORDERS THAT UPON THE DEPOSIT OF $600 WITH THE CLERK OF COURTS A GAL SHALL BE APPOINTED. THE COURT FURTHER ORDERS THAT BOTH PLTF AND DEFT SHALL DEPOSIT $300 EACH BY 6/30/11 AND NOTIFY THE COURT UPON PYMT OF SAME. 699/87
06/08/2011	DEFT'S NOTICE OF SUBMISSION:
06/23/2011	MOTION FOR EXPARTE ORDER OF EMERGENCY CUSTODY FILED BY ATTY GEORGE L DAVIS, III
06/23/2011	NOTICE OF COMPLIANCE;PLFT HAS POSTED 1/2 OF THE GUARDIAN AD LITEM FEE ON 6-17-11
06/24/2011	MOTION FOR EMERGENCY EX PARTE CUSTODY (FILED BY ATTY GARACZKOWSKI)
06/28/2011	DEFT'S REPLY TO PLTF'S MOTION FOR EMERGENCY EX PARTE CUSTODY
06/28/2011	DEFT'S NOTICE OF COMPLIANCE
07/07/2011	ENTRY APPOINTING GAL: SHER BLACK IS APPOINTED GAL. FATHER AND MOTHER HAVE DEPOSITED THE SUMOF $300 EACH WITH THE CLERK OF COURT'S OFFICE.
07/08/2011	PLTF'S ANSWERS TO DEFT 'S FIRST SET OF REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS PROPOUNDED TO PLTF
07/15/2011	ISSUED CERT COPY OF MOTION FOR EMERGENCY CUSTODY TO DEFT BY CERT MAIL.
07/15/2011	JUDGMENT ENTRY: BOTH PLTF AND DEFT HAVE FILED MOTIONS FOR EMERGENCY CUSTODY. BOTH MOTIONS ARE OVERRULED AND DENIED. THE COURT HAS APPOINTED A GAL FOR THE MINOR CHILDREN HEREIN. 703/10
07/21/2011	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED JOHN HAAS S/BROOKE HAAS 7/19/11
08/03/2011	WITNESS AND EXHIBIT LIST OF DEFT
08/04/2011	DEFT'S NOTICE OF SUBMISSION OF 1ST SET OF INTERR & REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS HAS BEEN SERVED ON ATTY ROBERT R DEVER
08/04/2011	NUNC PRO TUNC ENTRY APPOINTING GAL: SHER BLACK IS APPOINTED AS GAL. FATHER AND MOTHER HAVE EACH DEPOSITED THE SUM OF $300 WITH THE CLERK OF COURT 704/66
08/12/2011	NOTICE OF HEARING. PRE-TRIAL - 30 MIN ON 9/12/11 AT 2:30 PM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E. SPEARS
09/28/2011	NOTICE OF HEARING. ALL PENDING MOTIONS HEARING - 1 FULL DAY ON 2/7/12 AT 9:00 AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E. SPEARS
09/28/2011	NOTICE OF HEARING. PRE-TRIAL - 30 MIN ON 12/5/11 AT 10:30 AM BEFORE JUDGE DAVID E. SPEARS
12/21/2011	PLTF'S REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS PROPOUNDED TO DEFT
12/21/2011	PLTF'S FIRST SET OF INTERROGATORIES
12/29/2011	DEFT'S NOTICE OF SUBMISSION:
01/24/2012	PLTF'S SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL WITNESS AND EXHIBIT LIST
01/24/2012	PRACIPE FOR SUBPOENA: LEESA MOWERY BARRY SPRADLIN ANGELA MUNN KAREN WILCOXON RALPH M. WILCOXON MICHELE WAKEFIELD TIA KING MATTHEW LITTLE JEREMY HAMM
01/24/2012	ISSUED SUBPOENAS BY CERT MAIL TO THE FOLLOWING WITNESSES TO APPEAR ON 2/7/12 AT 9:00 AM: LEESA MOWERY BARRY SPRADLIN ANGELA MUNN KAREN WILCOXON RALPH M. WILCOXON MICHELE WAKEFIELD TIA KING MATTHEW LITTLE JEREMY HAMM
01/27/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED LEESA MOWERY S/MARILYN ROBERTS 1/26/12
01/30/2012	SUPPLEMENT TO WITNESS LIST OF DEFT
01/31/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED KAREN WILCOXON S/KAREN WILCOXON 1/30/12
02/01/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED MATTHEW LITTLE, RN - ON (STAMPED 1/31/2012 - SIGNED BY (UNABLE TO READ SIGNATURE)
02/01/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED TIA KING, FNP, SOMC ER - (STAMPED 1/31/2012) - SIGNED BY (UNABLE TO READ SIGNATURE)
02/01/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED JEREMY HAMM - ON (STAMPED 1/31/2012) - SIGNED BY (UNABLE TO READ SIGNATURE)
02/02/2012	CERTIFICATE OF ASSIGNMENT: THE HONORABLE WILLIAM WRAY BEVENS A RETIRED JUDGE OF THE PIKE COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, PROBATE & JUVENILE DIVISIONS, IS ASSIGNED EFFECTIVE 1/24/2012 TO PRESIDE IN THE SCIOTO COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DOMESTIC RELATIONS DIVISION TO HEAR CASE 04-CR-082, & TO CONCLUDE ANY PROCEEDINGS IN WHICH HE PARTICIPATED. (APPMT. JOU 8/436)
02/03/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED ANGELA MUNN S/ROBERT MUNN 2/2/12
02/03/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED BARRY SPRADLIN S/JON BARRY SPRADLIN 2/2/12
02/07/2012	GAL'S PRELIMINARY REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
02/13/2012	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: MICHELE WAKEFIELD - UNCLAIMED (SUBPOENA FOR 2/7/12) DID NOT RE-ISSUE, COURT DATE IS PAST
02/14/2012	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: RALPH M. WILCOXON - UNCLAIMED (SUBPOENA, DID NOT RE-ISSUE, HEARING PAST)
02/17/2012	JUDGMENT ENTRY: THIS COURT ASSIGNS THIS CASE FOR TRIAL AND ESTABLISHES THE FOLLOWING TIME SCHEDULE: PLTF'S IDENTIFICATION OF EXPERTS: 3/21/12 DEFT'S IDENTIFICATION OF EXPERTS: 4/3/12 DISCOVERY DEADLINE AND INTERROGATORIES DUE: 4/18/12 FINAL HEARING: 5/2/12, 5/3/12, 5/9/12 FROM 10:00 AM TO 4:30 PM 716/39
03/21/2012	PLTF'S IDENTIFICATION OF EXPERT WITNESSES ONLY
04/04/2012	EXPERT WITNESS LIST OF DEFT
04/12/2012	DEFT'S NOTICE OF SUBMISSION
04/12/2012	PRETRIAL BRIEF OF DEFT
04/20/2012	PLTF'S ANSWER TO DEFT'S FIRST SET OF INTERROGATORIES AND 2ND REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
04/23/2012	AFFIDAVIT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES OF HEATHER HAAS
04/23/2012	PLTF'S MOTION FOR IN CHAMBERS INTERVIEW OF CHILDREN
04/23/2012	PLTF'S MOTION TO COMPEL DEFICIENT ANSWERS TO DISCOVERY
04/23/2012	PLTF'S PRE-TRIAL BRIEF
04/24/2012	TRIAL BRIEF OF DEFT
04/24/2012	PRACIPE FOR SUBPOENA: LEESA MOWERY BARRY SPRADLIN ANGELA MUNN KAREN WILCOXON TIA KING MATTHEW LITTLE JEREMY HAMM MELISSA FOSTER
04/24/2012	PLTF'S TRIAL BRIEF
04/25/2012	ISSUED SUBPOENAS BY CERT MAIL TO THE FOLLOWING WITNESSES TO APPEAR ON 5/2/12, 5/3/12, 5/9/12 AT 10:00 AM: LEESA MOWERY BARRY SPRADLIN ANGELA MUNN KAREN WILCOXON TIA KING MATTHEW LITTLE JEREMY HAMM MELISSA FOSTER
04/25/2012	SUPPLEMENTAL EXHIBIT LIST OF DEFT
04/27/2012	NOTICE OF HEARING. INTERVIEW OF MINOR CHILDREN ON 5/2/12 AT 10:00 AM BEFORE JUDGE W.W. BEVENS
04/30/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED LEESA MOWERY S/MARILYN ROBERTS 4/27/12
04/30/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED KAREN WILCOXON S/RALPH E. WILCOXON 4/27/12
04/30/2012	DEFT'S NOTICE OF SUBMISSION: DEFT'S SUPPLEMENTAL REPLY TO PLTF'S INTERROGATORIES & REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS IN COMPLIANCE WITH COUNSEL FOR PLTF'S CORRESPONDENCE OF 4/16/12 THE ORIGINAL OF WHICH DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN SERVED ON JOAN GARACZKOWSKI, ATTY FOR PLTF VIA HAND DELIVERY AND ELECTRONIC MAIL MAIL AND SHER ALLEN BLACK, GAL VIA REGULAR US MAIL ON 4/30/12
05/01/2012	SUPPLEMENTAL EXHIBIT LIST OF DEFT
05/02/2012	GAL'S MOTION FOR AN ORDER FOR DISBURSEMENT OF FEES
05/02/2012	ENTRY: UPON MOTION FOR AN ORDER FOR DISBURSEMENT OF GAL FEES AND FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, THIS COURT ORDERS DISBURSEMENT OF THE FUNDS CURRENTLY ON DEPOSIT WITH THE SCIOTO CO CLERK OF COURTS FOR THE ABOVE REFERENCED MATTER IN THE AMOUNT OF $600 TO BE PAID BY THE GAL, SHER BLACK 721/40
05/02/2012	CERTIFICATE FOR COURT STENOGRAPHER'S FEES
05/02/2012	NOTICE OF HEARING. CHILD SUPPORT/FINANCIAL MATTERS - 1 DAY ON 7/9/12 AT 10:00 AM TO 4:30 PM BEFORE JUDGE W.W. BEVENS
05/07/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED BARRY SPRADLIN S/BARRY SPRADLIN 5/4/12
05/07/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED MATTHEW LITTLE, RN S/UNABLE TO READ SIGNATURE 5/5/12
05/07/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED JEREMY HAMM S/K.L. 5/5/12
05/07/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED TIA KING, FNP, SOMC ER S/KIM C. 7/5/12
05/08/2012	NOTICE TO TAKE DEPOSITION: PLTF WILL TAKE DEPOSITION OF DEF ON 5/22/12 AT 12:30 PM AT THE OFFICE OF ATTY GEORGE L. DAVIS III
05/11/2012	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED MELISSA FOSTER - ON 5/10/2012 - SIGNED BY MELISSA FOSTER
05/15/2012	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: ANGELA MUNN - UNCLAIMED (SUBPOENA FOR 5/2/12, 5/3/12, & 5/9/12) DID NOT RE-ISSUE. COURT DATES PAST
05/17/2012	PRAECIPE FOR SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM: SUSAN HAAS
05/18/2012	ISSUED SUBPOENA TO PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSEL FOR ESRVICE UPON WITNESS SUSAN HAAS.
05/21/2012	DEFT'S MOTION TO COMPEL FOR DEFICIENT ANSWERS TO DISCOVERY
05/21/2012	SUPPLEMENT TO PLTF'S REPLY TO DEFT'S INTERROGATORIES AND REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS IN COMPLIANCE TO COUNSEL FOR DEFT CORRESPONDENCE OF 5/10/12
05/22/2012	RETURN FILED: SERVED SUSAN HAAS WITH SUBPOENA ON 5/19/12 BY PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSELL
06/14/2012	AGREED JUDGMENT ENTRY: IT IS ORDERED THAT THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN PREVIOUSLY ORDERED BY THE COURT WITH REPECT TO BROOKE HAAS SHALL BE TERMINATED EFFECTIVE 5/2/12. PLTF SHALL BE DESIGNATED AS THE RESIDENTIAL PARENT AND LEGAL CUSTODIAN OF BROOKE HAAS SUBJECT TO DEFT BEING GRANTED PARENTING TIME. THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN PREVIOUSLY ORDERED WITH RESPECT TO ETHAN HAAS SHALL NOT BE MODIFIED OR TERMINATED AND SHALL CONTINUE AS PREVIOUSLY ORDERED AND THE SHARED PARENTING PLAN WITH RESPECT TO ETHAN HAAS SHALL REMAIN AS PREIVOUSLY ORDERED. THIS MATTER WILL COME ON FOR HEARING WITH RESPECT TO THE ISSUES HEREIN ON 7/9/12 AT 10:00 AM FOR A FULL DAY HEARING. 724/117
07/02/2012	PLTF'S MOTION TO CONTINUE THE HEARING SET FOR 7/9/12 AT 10:00 AM
07/20/2012	ENRY OF CONTINUANCE: THE HEARING SET FOR 7/9/12 AT 10:00 AM IS CONTINUED TO 10/29/12 AND 10/30/12 AT 10:00 AM TO NOON EACH DAY. 727/61
08/14/2012	PRACIPE FOR SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM: SUSAN HAAS
08/14/2012	NOTICE TO TAKE DEPOSITION: DEFT WILL TAKE THE DEPOSITION OF PLTF ON 9/7/12 AT 1:00 PM AT THE OFFICE OF GEORGE L. DAVIS, III
08/14/2012	NOTICE OF DEPOSITION: PLTF WILL TAKE THE DEPOSITION OF DEFT JOHN R. HAAS AND SUSAN HAAS ON 9/7/12 COMMENCING AT 1:00 PM AT THE OFFICE OF GEORGE L. DAVIS, III
08/15/2012	ISSUED SUBPOENA BY CERT MAIL TO THE FOLLOWING WITNESS TO APPEAR AT THE OFFICE OF ATTY GEORGE L. DAVIS, III FOR DEPOSITIONS AND TO BRING COPIES OF INCOME VERIFICATION ON 9/7/12 AT 1:00 PM: SUSAN HAAS
08/27/2012	RE-ISSUED SUBPOENA TO PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSELL FOR S SERVICE UPON THE FOLLOWING WITNESS: SUSAN HAAS
08/29/2012	RETURN FILED: SERVED SUBPONEA TO THE FOLLOWING WITNESS ON 8/29/12 BY PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSELL: SUSAN HAAS
09/06/2012	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: SUSAN HAAS 2834 CIRCLE DR PORTSMOUTH, OH; UNCLAIMED ** REISSUED BY REG US MAIL WITH CERT OF MAILING
09/11/2012	CERTIFICATE OF MAILING TO: SUSAN HAAS ON 9/7/12
09/12/2012	PRECIPE FOR SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM: JOHN HAAS
09/13/2012	ISSUED SUBPONEA TO PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSELL FOR SERVICE UPON THE FOLLOWING WITNESS: JOHN HAAS
09/13/2012	DEFT'S NOTICE OF SUBMISSION
09/19/2012	RETURN FILED: SERVED WITNESS JOHN HAAS WITH SUBPOENA ON 9/19/12 BY PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSELL
09/25/2012	DEFT'S MOTION TO QUASH
10/11/2012	NOTICE OF DEPOSITION: PLTF WILL TAKE THE DEPOSITION OF DEFT JOHN HAAS ON 10/22/12 COMMENCING AT 9:00 AM AT THE OFFICE OF JOAN M. GARACZKOWSKI
10/15/2012	NOTICE OF APPEARANCE: ATTY GEORGE L. DAVIS, IV FOR DEFT
10/15/2012	PLTF'S THIRD SUPPLEMENTAL WITNESS AND EXHIBIT LIST
10/16/2012	DEFTS MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER
10/18/2012	PLTF'S RESPONSE TO DEFT'S MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER
10/18/2012	PRACIPE FOR SUBPONENA DUCES TECUM - JOHN HAAS
10/18/2012	PRACIPE FOR SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM: JOHN HAAS
10/19/2012	RETURN FILED: SERVED WITNESS JOHN HAAS WITH TWO (2) SUBPOENAS ON 10/19/12 BY PROCESS SERVER T.G. RUSSELL
10/29/2012	JUDGMENT ENTRY GRANTING MOTION TO QUASH: UPON THE MOTION OF DEFT AND FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN THE DEFT'S MOTION TO QUASH FILED ON 9/25/12 IS GRANTED. 736/24
10/29/2012	ENTRY OF PROTECTIVE ORDER: PLTF IS PROHIBITED FROM DEPOSING THE DEFT A SECOND DAY AND THE DEPOSITION OF DEFT SCHEDULED FOR 10/22/12 AT 9:00 AM SHALL NOT TAKE PLACE. 736/25
11/07/2012	INFORMATION TO THE COURT: DEFT DID PROVIDE TO PLTF US CORP. INCOME TAX RETURNS FOR 2009, 2010 AND 2011
12/17/2012	NOTICE OF HEARING. FINAL HEARING - 1 FULL DAY ON 3/7/13 AT 10:00 AM TO 4:30 PM BEFORE JUDGE W.W. BEVENS
12/28/2012	DEFT'S JOHN HAAS' SECOND SET OF INTERROGATORIES AND 3RD REQUEST FOR PRODUCTIONS OF DOCUMENTS PROPOUNDED TO PLTF HEATHER HAAS
02/11/2013	ENTRY: UPN THE COURTS OWN MOTION, THE HEARING CURRENTLY SET FOR 3/7/2013 IS HEREBY RESCHEDULED FOR 4/16/2013 @ 9:30 AM 744/21
04/02/2013	PLTFS FOURTH SUPPLEMENTAL WITNESS & EXHIBIT LIST
04/02/2013	DEFTS MOTION FOR CONTEMPT Attorney: DAVIS, III, GEORGE LEWIS
04/03/2013	ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE - THE MOTION DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS A PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT PLAINTIFF IS IN CONTEMPT OF THIS COURT'S ORDERS AND ORDERS THAT HEATHER HAAS APPEAR BEFORE MAGISTRATE MICHAEL L. JONES, AT 602 7TH STREET DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT ROOM 304, PORTSMOUTH, OHIO 45662 ON 4/15/13 AT 9;30 AM TO SHOW CAUSE WHY HE SHOULD NOT BE PUNISHED FOR CIRMINAL ANDOR CIVIL CONTEMPT OF COURT. 749/39 Receipt: 11535 Date: 11/20/2013 Receipt: 12511 Date: 12/20/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
04/03/2013	NOTICE OF HEARING ISSUED WITH CERT COPY OF MOTION AND ORDER TO PLTF BY CERT MAIL. Receipt: 9115 Date: 09/19/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
04/04/2013	DEFT'S SUPPLEMENTAL WITNESS/EXHIBIT LIST
04/12/2013	ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE - THE MOTION DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS A PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT PLTF IS IN CONTEMPT OF THIS COURT'S ORDERS AND ORDERS THAT HEATHER HAAS APPEAR BEFORE MAGISTRATE MICHAEL L. JONES, AT 602 7TH STREET DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT ROOM 304, PORTSMOUTH, OHIO 45662 ON 4/16/13 AT 9:30 AM TO SHOW CAUSE WHY HE SHOULD NOT BE PUNISHED FOR CIRMINAL ANDOR CIVIL CONTEMPT OF COURT. THE PURPOSE OF THIS NUNC PRO TUNC ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE IS TO CORRECT THE DATE THE HEARING IS TO BE HEARD. THE HEARING IS TO BE ON 4/16/13 AT 9:30 AM NOT 4/15/13 AT 9:30 AM. 749/113 Receipt: 11535 Date: 11/20/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
04/12/2013	NOTICE OF HEARING ISSUED WITH CERT COPY OF NUNC PRO TUNC ORDER TO BOTH PARTIES BY CERT MAIL. Receipt: 9115 Date: 09/19/2013 Receipt: 10089 Date: 10/21/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
04/15/2013	PLTFS FIFTH SUPPLEMENTAL EXHIBIT LIST
04/15/2013	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED (HEATHER HAAS) - ON (STAMPED 4/12/2013) - SIGNED BY HEATHER HAAS Receipt: 10089 Date: 10/21/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
04/16/2013	MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT 750/14 Receipt: 12511 Date: 12/20/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
04/26/2013	RETURN RECEIPT FILED. SERVED (HEATHER HAAS) - ON 4/25/2013 - SIGNED BY HEATHER HAAS Receipt: 10089 Date: 10/21/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
05/07/2013	ENVELOPE RETURNED. ADDRESSED TO: JOHN HAAS - UNCLAIMED (NOH, MTN, ORDER) Receipt: 10089 Date: 10/21/2013 Receipt: 11535 Date: 11/20/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
05/07/2013	RE-ISSUED NOTICE OF HEARING WITH CERT COPY OF NUNC PRO TUNC ORDER TO DEFT BY REG US MAIL Receipt: 9115 Date: 09/19/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014
07/16/2013	AGREED JUDGMENT ENTRY: IT IS ORDERED: - DEFT'S CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION BE MODIFED FROM 8/19/10 UNTIL 5/2/12 PER CHILD SUPPORT WORKSHEET, MARKED #1 AND ATTACHED HERETO TO WIT: WHEN INSURANCE IS PROVIDED DEFT'S CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION IS $349.82 PLUS $7.00 PROCESSING FEE FOR A TOTAL OF $356.82; IF INSURANCE IS NOT PROVIDED DEFT'S CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION IS $277.71 PLUS CASH MEDICAL OF $162.25 AND PROCESSING FEE OF $8.80 FOR A TOTAL OF $448.76 - DEFT'S CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION TO BE MODIFIED FROM 5/2/12 FORWARD PER CHILD SUPPORT WORKSHEET MARKED #2 AND ATTACHED HERETO, TO WIT: WHEN INSURANCE IS PROVIDED DEFT'S CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION IS $524.73 PLUS $10.49 PROCESSING FEE FOR A TOTAL OF $535.22; IF INSURANCE IS NOT PROVIDED DEFT'S CHILD SUPPORT OBLIGATION IS $452.63 PLUS CASH MEDICAL OF $162.25 AND PROCESSING FEE OF $12.30 FOR A TOTAL OF $627.18; - SCIOTO CO CSEA SHALL ADJUST THEIR RECORDS ACCORDINGLY AND ISSUE THE APPROPRIATE WAGE WITHHOLD TO DEFT'S EMPLOYER: CITY OF PORTSMOUTH. - MEIDCAL EXPENSES FOR MINOR CHILDREN SHALL REMAIN PER PRIOR ORDER OF THE COURT, UNCOVERED MEDICAL EXPENSES SHALL BE PER LINE 16 OF THE CURRENT OR ANY SUBSEQUENT CHILD SUPPORT ORDER - PLTF IS TO PAY HER PERCENTAGES OF UNCOVERED EXPENSES FOR ETHAN'S SECOND SET OF BRACES; - AS AND FOR TAX EXEMPTIONS PLTF SHALL CLAIM BROOKE AND DEFT SHALL CLAIM ETHAN UNTIL BROOKE IS EMANCIPATED. THEREAFTER, ETHAN'S EXEMPTION SHALL BE ROTATED WITH PLTF CLAIMING THE DEDUCTION IN EVEN YEARS AND DEFT CLAIMING THE DEDUCTION IN ODD YEARS - THE COURT RETAINS JURISDICTION OVER THE PARTIES CHILDREN AND TO ENFORCE ITS ORDERS - PARTIES SHALL SPLIT COURT COSTS EQUALLY. 759/50 Receipt: 12511 Date: 12/20/2013 Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014 Receipt: 13406 Date: 01/21/2014
07/17/2013	CLERK FEES Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014 Receipt: 16038 Date: 04/09/2014
07/17/2013	COUNTY FEES Receipt: 12982 Date: 01/09/2014 Receipt: 13406 Date: 01/21/2014 Receipt: 14398 Date: 02/24/2014 Receipt: 15043 Date: 03/12/2014 Receipt: 16038 Date: 04/09/2014
07/17/2013	ITEMIZED BILL HAAS, HEATHER was sent bill for $679.31 printed on 07/17/2013
07/17/2013	ITEMIZED BILL HAAS, JOHN was sent bill for $679.35 printed on 07/17/2013
09/23/2013	AR NOTICE TO PAY COSTS - 30 DAYS PAST DUE HAAS, JOHN was sent bill for $679.35 printed on 09/23/2013
12/31/2013	AR NOTICE TO PAY COSTS - PAST DUE 60 DAYS HAAS, JOHN was sent bill for $679.35 printed on 12/31/2013
02/21/2014	AR NOTICE TO PAY COSTS - 30 DAYS PAST DUE HAAS, HEATHER was sent bill for $579.31 printed on 02/21/2014

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Front Street: One for the Road

June 9, 2014, 11:52 am

≫ Next: Donuts, Obesity, and Diabetes

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Motorcyclists on Front Street before it was resurfaced

In  April 2012, in River Vices, in the post “Front Street: Unsafe at Any Speed,” I warned  about the hazardous situation on Front Street. I argued that it was a potential fatality waiting to happen. One of the groups making it hazardous are the motorcyclists, like those in the photo above.

 Most of the bikers I’ve met on Front Street have been polite and considerate. Most bikers certainly  don’t want to cause trouble. They simply want to see and have their photo taken in  front of the Motorcycle Mural, which is  the most popular by far of all the murals. That mural has become mecca for thousands of bikers from Ohio and surrounding states, but not all those bikers are considerate and careful. Some of them are wannabe Brandos burning rubber.  Just last Saturday, about 6 PM, I saw two bikers take advantage of a lull in traffic to speed west on Front Street, roaring past the Motorcycle Mural at breakneck speeds. I also recently saw a show-off biker do wheelies with his rear passenger holding on to him for dear life.

Joggers passing staging used to wash and retouch murals

I don't know whether  the changes that are being proposed for Front Street, including making it one way, with a bicycle path, are feasible,  but  I do know that something should be done about the incompatible and hazardous multiple uses to which Front Street is now being put. What follows is a list of the principal users of Front Street:

• Tourists, in automobiles, on motorcycles, in wheelchairs, and on foot.
• Motorists who avoid the traffic lights on Second Street by using Front Street, which has no traffic lights and stop signs,  to get in and out of downtown Portsmouth as fast as possible, especially in the morning, as if they are late for work. 
• Joggers, both individually or as part of a group, usually running in the middle of the street because of the planters obstructing the eleven foot lane next to the murals.  
• Classes of grade school and middle school students on foot and sometimes on school buses.
• The Portsmouth Garden Club. God bless the dedicated ladies of the Garden Club, who dutifully tend to the planters,  but the ugly, obtrusive planters are a plague that detract from the beauty of the murals and add to the hazards of Front Street. In 2012, I counted twelve planters. A few days ago I counted twenty-five. 
• Portsmouth police officers in cruisers who use Front Street to travel to and from the Police Station and their clubhouse, which are  located at opposite ends of the Floodwall Murals. Since these cruisers sometimes go over the speed limit, especially in heading west, to the clubhouse, it is not surprising they do not issue traffic tickets to speeding motorists. In the all the years the murals have been there, I have walked Front Street for exercise at least once a day and in the thousands of times I've taken that walk I have never seen a motorist stopped for speeding, though I have seen many going over, sometimes well over,  the speed limit. 

Tourists in wheelchairs and a toddler in stroller amid  ugly obtrusive planters

(For an earlier post,  "Front Street: Unsafe at Any Speed," in which the above photo appeared, click here.)

Donuts, Obesity, and Diabetes

June 14, 2014, 4:15 pm

≫ Next: Hurrricane Klara: SSU's Perfect Storm

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"The only healthy part of a donut is the hole." 

"To underscore the nutritionally immoral tinge of the donut run, 

there  was a donut eating contest scheduled after the race."

"The large majority of those who participated in the Salvation Army Donut Run 

in Portsmouth this year did not run, they walked."

One of the depressing things about living in Portsmouth, Ohio, is the large number of people who are, unfortunately, both for themselves  and for the community they live in,  a financial and social burden. Portsmouth is located in a tri-state area (southern Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia) that ranks statistically as among the fattest regions in the country. A nutritionally poor diet and sedentary life style has a lot to do with the preponderance of overweight people in Portsmouth. Encouraging people to be more physically active is one of the ways to counter the epidemic of obesity and the diabetes that often accompanies it,  which are turning alarming numbers of  Americans into big basket cases. The baskets in this case are the medical and social services provided by public and private agencies that help the obese to cope.

As part of the program to encourage people to be more active, to run or at least walk more, several mini-marathons are held in Portsmouth each year. One of those mini-marathons, was held recently, on Saturday, June 14. Sponsored by the Salvation Army, and a little over three miles in length, the Donut Run coincides with National Donut Day, which  commemorates the Salvation Army workers who provided soldiers donuts during the First World War. They also serve who only serve donuts! But the  only healthy part of a donut is the hole. National Donut Day was a way for the Salvation Army to call attention to the good work that that religious organization did not only for soldiers during wartime but for the destitute and homeless during peacetime. National  Donut Day was good public relations for the Salvation Army. It has also become not only good public relations but good business for donut makers, such as Duncan Donuts, Krispy Kreme, etc.  But because unhealthy food such as donuts incontrovertibly contribute to obesity, donut makers are on the defensive. In associating donuts with mini-marathons and exercise,  as well as  with a religious group such as the  Salvation Army, donut runs  run circles around nutritionists. To underscore the nutritionally immoral tinge of the donut run, there  was a donut eating contest scheduled after the run.

The large majority of those who participated in the Salvation Army Donut Run in Portsmouth this year did not run, they walked. Most looked like they were not in shape to run one mile, never mind three. While nobody who walked looked obese, a good number looked overweight, which is to say they looked like most Americans. They looked like they were for exercise more in principle than practice, which is to say the  Salvation Army Donut Run may have served to salve some consciences. The young man who won the race looked in great shape, but he and about a dozen others, including a few young women, may have,  without realizing it,  served as shills for this somewhat carny con game for the Salvation Army and the donut industry. Those who conducted the Donut Run for the Salvation Army appeared to be at least  bordering on  obese and therefore a poor advertisement for either running or religion, but a better one for the Salivating Army.

"Those who conducted the Donut Run for the Salvation Army appeared to be

 at least  bordering  on  obese and therefore a poor advertisement for

 either running or religion, but a better one for the Salivating Army."

Perhaps the presence of the overweight Mike Jones in the Donut Run was the most damning indictment of it. He wasn’t running for his health; he was running for political office. In a shameless exercise in self-promotion, he was wearing a Mike Jones for Whatever T shirt. Jones had already showed himself suspect in  his shady financial purchase of Crispie Creme Donut Shop (click here), but he also showed himself utterly incompetent in the management of that business, which is why he is in politics. If Jones had half the number of customers as he had roaches in Crispie Creme,  he would have been rolling in dough. 

"Perhaps the presence of the overweight Mike Jones,

 in the Donut Run was the most damning  indictment of it."

Hurrricane Klara: SSU's Perfect Storm

June 26, 2014, 9:00 am

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(This is a re-posting of  piece that originally appeared in River Vices on Oct. 25, 2005. I am currently writing another piece on Kay Reynolds called “Slumlord Klara,” in the writing of which I was reminded that, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Yes, the political hack is back on the SSU  Board of Trustees only now it’s Governor Kasich, not Governor Taft, she will be an embarrassment to.)

As if SSU needed any further dumbing down, Governor Robert Taft has appointed Kay “Hurricane Klara” Reynolds as chair of the Shawnee State Board of Trustees. It is the kind of stupid political move that has sent Taft’s poll numbers plummeting and almost guarantees that Ohio Republicans will be made to pay by voters in the next election.

Taft has already pleaded no contest to ethic violations. If only he could be put on trial for acting like a dodo, which is what he was in appointing Reynolds chair of the trustees. If anyone in the governor’s office could remember that far back, or cared, Klara Kay Reynolds was one of those trustees who conspired with university lawyer Stephen P. Donohue to remove the most popular and effective president Shawnee State has ever had, James P. Chapman, causing an uproar on campus and reinforcing SSU’s abysmal reputation in the academic world.

Reynold’s appointment caps a trend at SSU, which more than any other institution of higher education I know of shows the validity of the “Peter Principle,” which is “The theory that employees [and trustees] within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent” (American Heritage Dictionary). With Hurricane Klara as chair of the trustees, Stephen P. Donohue as de facto president, Rita Rice Morris as nominal president, Michael Field as provost, and John Kelley as interim dean, we are faced with the equivalent of a perfect storm of incompetence and questionable ethics.

Rita Rice Morris has made a name for herself by jumping out of airplanes and joining in the beatification of real estate developer Neal Hatcher but not for being a strong leader. She lives in the infamous house on the hill, that distressed piece of property on Camelot Drive, that money pit that the trustees purchased at an inflated price from a doctor in distress, just as they had previously bought from local lawyer and politician John Thatcher at an inflated price a temporary president’s house, i.e., a piece of distressed property, on Franklin Blvd, which the trustees then took a $50 thousand loss on when they sold it to another doctor. Doctors and lawyers are among Portsmouth’s over-privileged who profit from public treasuries.

Donohue, the over-privileged’s defacto president at SSU, handled the Franklin Blvd. fiasco from start to finish. As an Asst. Attorney General for the State of Ohio, Donohue would of course have known whether the purchase of the Thatcher house violated state law, wouldn’t he? Hired in a stealth search and on the basis of a resume that would not have got him even an interview at an ethical institution, he then declined, once hired, to discuss his past history with a Daily Times reporter. Since he is rumored to have been fired from his previous job, we can begin to understand his doctored resume and his reluctance to be interviewed about his past job experience.

Provost Field, acting as interim president, was just the kind of obliging bureaucrat whom the over-privileged of Portsmouth and several trustees and Donohue wanted as the next permanent president of SSU, but Field’s performance as provost and then as interim president was rated very poorly by the faculty, and then the campaign to make him the new president was handled so incompetently by his handlers that he was not even among the three finalists chosen by the presidential search committee. There has usually been at least one trustee of integrity, and that is another reason why Field did not become the new president. Field ended up, with a hefty raise, back in the provost’s office, at the job at which he never should have been temporarily promoted from, according to the Peter Principle. As provost, he had clearly reached his level of incompetence, and there he will probably remain until he retires, for who else, given his track record at SSU, would hire him, and who given his willingness to play ball no matter how sleazy the game, would dare fire him?

John Kelley completes the perfect storm at SSU. Shortly before Kelley was appointed interim provost, when speculation was rife about who would replace Field as interim provost, the word was that the trustees were going to appoint “a faculty friendly” person to the position. Kelley may have been a trustee favorite, but he was not a faculty favorite. Kelley is liked by the faculty, considerably more than the provost is. But it is sometimes the case that a person can be liked but not respected. Kelley could be described as bi-institutional, which gives him advantages that he does not fail to take advantage of, but it is also a quality that makes him look at times as if he is working both sides of the street. It is the administration and the trustees, not the faculty, who appoint Kelley to his interim administrative positions, and they appoint him because he can be counted on to do the questionable things administrators and trustees want him to do, which is what he can be expected to continue to do as interim dean.

But who makes the impending storm at SSU frightening is, above all, Hurricane Klara. While President Chapman was working a miracle at SSU and making improvements and building remarkable bridges to faculty, students, and community, Klara Kay Reynolds and several other trustees were working to undermine and remove him. Hurricane Klara, with her undergraduate major in Home Economics at Ohio State, this political hack, considers herself pretty smart, as is evident in her pretentious but poorly written evaluation of President Chapman that was leaked back in July 2001.

While Chapman was initiating Interest Based Bargain negotiations that were unprecedented at SSU in their amity and progress, Hurricane Klara was leaking her evaluation on Chapman’s presidency from her offices at Scioto Rental Management. Her evaluation was passed on to me. I was told George Clayton, trustee chair, was one of the intermediaries. Only vanity can explain why she leaked this document when she did, for it threatened to alert me, as union president, among others, that we were about to be screwed, that the trustees and the administration were going along with Interest Based Bargaining in bad faith, that they planned to get rid of Chapman just as soon as they had milked him and Interest Based Bargaining for everything they were worth.

Reynolds had closed her evaluation of Chapman with a quote from Galileo. “You cannot teach people anything. You can only help them discover it within themselves.” I too can easily look up famous quotes, but I find another more appropriate Galileo quote, the gender of which I will change to suit my purposes. “I have never met a woman so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from her.”

I had been warned by faculty with more experience than I had, that I and the union were making a mistake in trusting trustees like Reynolds by entering into Interest Based Bargaining. Because I had faith in the honesty and ability of Chapman, I went along, and lived to regret it. I even wrote a very positive account of our bargaining experience in the NEA journal Thought & Action  (http://www2.nea.org/he/heta99/s99p139.pdf ), but that was before I had discovered the depths of dishonesty and incompetence that characterizes the people in control of Portsmouth and SSU.

Below is the cover letter that accompanied Reynolds’ evaluation of Chapman. Notice the line, “We are in the mist [sic] of union negotiation [sic] and should present a united front.” She was in a mist, all right, the mist of ignorance and prejudice that political hacks operate in and that SSU has been cursed with from its beginning. Something Professor Kathleen Simon wrote (June 3, 2001) in response to a letter from Reynolds has relevance. “I don’t know what your intention was when you wrote your letter,” Simon wrote Reynolds, “but after reading it, I am even more fully entrenched in my belief that letting political appointees run a university is a really bad idea.” With a political appointee as chair of the trustees, and with negotiations looming, I forecast a perfect storm, with Hurricane Klara right at the eye of it.

Just Say Nay to Kay

July 1, 2014, 10:10 am

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1416 1/2 Park Ave.

In 2011 the controversial Portsmouth businesswoman Kay (AKA Klara) Reynolds was reappointed by Governor Kasich to the Shawnee State University  Board of Trustees, where she will serve on the three-member presidential search committee. More recently, she was sworn in as the Vice-Chair of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP). In view of her reputation, as least among the faculty at SSU and among Tea Partiers, I'm surprised  she was chosen for  either of these two prominent positions. Reynolds  was and still is the owner of, among other businesses,  Scioto Rental Management. In her first term as a member of the Shawnee State University Board of Trustees (1999-2008), she was suspected  of a conflict of interest when she reportedly tried to interest the university in  one of her  troubled properties, an apartment complex  at 115 Boundary Street. At that time SSU president Clive Veri was pushing hard for football at the university, and the argument was made that 115 Boundary Street, overlooking historic Spartan Stadium,  would make  a convenient dormitory  for the team. But  Veri resigned under pressure in 1998, and he was replaced by James Chapman, who decided football was not financially feasible for the university, dashing whatever hopes Reynolds may have had of selling  or leasing 115 Boundary to SSU. She was stuck with the property and the headaches that went with it, not selling it until 2012.

A past president of the Shawnee Education Association, the faculty union, told me that Reynolds back in the late 1990s had voted against a collective bargaining agreement the union and the administration negotiators had worked out, saying that the SSU faculty were like children, and “even though you would like to give them what they want, you must sometimes say NO!” That apparently was also her attitude toward tenants, whom she was accustomed to saying no to, as for example, when they asked for their security deposits back. I was told by one of her former tenants at 115 Boundary that Kay, or Klara,  to use her business name, refused to refund his deposit even though his mother told me she had thoroughly cleaned his apartment after he moved out.

Kay  Boynton  Reynold's maiden name was Klara Rapp, but having been married twice, she uses a bewildering combination of first names, initials, and last names,  making it difficult to track her down in public records.  But generally, Klara is the name she uses in business and Kay the name she uses as a social and political figure. The mercenary Klara makes the money and  does the dirty work, so to speak, and  the high-minded public-figure Kay takes the credit and gets the kudos.  Klara takes the low road and Kay the high road. Read the statement she released when she was reappointed to the board and you would think she was a miracle worker and not the most divisive and obstructive member of that board. "I’m honored to be able to serve again," she wrote.  "My previous term we accomplished a great deal and made a number of decisions that I feel were critical in helping Shawnee State grow. It makes me proud.”

Is she also proud of what she has done as a landlord in Portsmouth? In the last fourteen years, for allegedly failing to meet their financial obligations, her tenants have been taken to court by Kay, or more specifically by Klara,  about 180 times,  including tenants from 115 Boundary Street. It appears she failed to meet her obligations as a landlord to keep up her properties.  I recently learned she owns a house, at 1416 ½ Park Avenue,  that is not  fit  for human habitation.  Actually, the house is not located on Park Avenue  but on the alley that runs behind it, and it is not officially numbered 1416 1/2, but rather as 1416, creating confusion.  The County Auditor's Office clarified things for me when they pointed out that  the parcel of land at 1416 Park contains two different residences, front and back, separated by a fence. How did this confusing arrangement of two 1416s come about? Perhaps only Klara knows. Kay took tenants of 1416 into court, but of the front or the back 1416 is not clear.

I made a visit to the back 1416, to  what I'll call 1416 1/2, one muggy morning with my friend Austin Leedom, editor of the Shawnee Sentinel.  When we arrived at the alley, a deranged-looking  man was poking through overflowing trash barrels. Barking dogs snarled at us from behind rusting link fences. The front door of the unnumbered 1416½ was boarded up with plywood, so we went to the backyard, which was strewn with debris, including a large, ratty sofa. Through the open  back door, I could see the gutted kitchen which had a large mattress on the floor. (See the photos above.) 

If some residents of Portsmouth think of  Kay Reynolds as a slumlord, some Tea-Party Republicans think of her as a RINO,  a Republican-In-Name-Only. Tea Partiers consider RINOs  as  unprincipled opportunists who are as big-government as Democrats. From a Tea Party perspective, Reynolds was being unprincipled when she  resorted to Section 8, which  is a New Deal piece of legislation passed by the Democratic-dominated U.S. Congress during the Great Depression. Under Section 8, the government  pays up to  two-thirds of  poor tenants' rent. To conservative Republicans, the government  paying rent for poor people smacks of socialism, if not fiscal insanity. But the clever RINO created a corporation called Choice Housing to take advantage of  Section 8. The corporation was described as a charitable organization, as if she was a philanthropist.   With the government paying two-thirds of the rent, there was less need for Klara to take tenants to court because they needed to pay only one third of what she charged for rent with the government paying the rest.  Here is the rundown on Kay's Choice Housing  that  I found online:

  

Kay’s “Charitable Organization”

Voters are not children anymore than the faculty at SSU or her tenants are children. As a retired faculty member, I have an interest in the future of SSU, and I don’t think Reynolds should be on the presidential search committee or even on the Board of Trustees. If the Ohio Republican Party wants her as their Vice-Chair, that is their business, but what does that say about the Ohio Republican Party? As a presumptive candidate in the 2016 presidential race, Kasich is trying to move to the center politically to appeal to independent voters. But people like Kay Reynolds  may be just what Kasich and the Ohio Republican Party don’t need if they hope to win back the White House. They may end up getting more independents to vote Republican  but by abandoning sacrosanct Republican principles they may lose the votes of conservative Republicans.

From public records available on the internet (Appendix B), I have culled some two hundred names (Appendix A) from among those Kay brought into Portsmouth Municipal Court on one charge or another. Many of the names date back to the 1990s and at least some of them may have moved on and a few sadly passed away. With one exception, none of them challenged her in court, which they probably could not afford to do, but I am offering them the opportunity to set the record straight for posterity, if they can, to show they were not the deadbeats the official records suggest they were but rather Reynold's victims.   I invite any of them that might read this blog, if they are so inclined,  now that she occupies the number two position on the central committee of  the Ohio Republican Party, to Just Say Nay to Kay.

Appendix A

Adams, Harold

Adams, Martha

Adkins, Craig

Allard, Robert

Allie, Anwar

Anderson, Vincent

Applegate, Lisa

Artressia, Jeff

Arwood, Melissa

Ashley, Harold

Atkins, Ronald

Bach, Kimberly

Bailey, David

Bailey, Diane

Barnes, James

Barrett, Marvin

Bender, Greg

Bender, Jodi

Bennington, Cynthia

Bertram, Donald, Jr.

Bihl, Andrew

Bihl, James

Bishop, James

Blackburn, Shawna

Blenkenship, Kim

Blevins, Linda

Blevins, Marcella

Booker, Doreene

Brammar, Carolyn

Brewer, Tom

Brickey, Arnold

Brickey, Pauline

Brightwell, Robin

Brown, Debra

Brown, Eva

Brown, Scott

Burchett, Dawn

Campbell, Angel

Campbell, Lois

Cantrell, Peggy

Caudill, Gary

Caudill, Shannon

Chaffin, Charlene

Chamberlin, Jason

Chan, Boe

Clare, James

Clark, Brenda

Clark, Sharon

Clark, Thomas

Clay, Melannie

Cline, Tracy

Cochran, Brenda

Collier, Edward

Collier, Rhonda

Conkel, Patty

Conley, Stephanie

Cooper, Kathy

Cooper, Roger

Craft, Cheryl

Cremeans, Jon

Cummins, Michael

Darnell, Paul

Dill, Gary

Dill, Sharon

Duckett, Fred

Duckett, Helen

Dugan, Roger

Emmons, Jack

Erhler, Liburn

Erhler, Tawyna

Evans, Jaime

Evans, John

Evans, Judy

Evans, Julie

Evans, Kathy

Evans, Rebecca

Farmer, Carolyn

Fitch, Michael

Glenn, Tommy

Graham, Angelia

Gribble, Rev. Steven

Grumman, Arthur

Hall, Bruce

Hall, Jennifer

Hall, Norman

Hall, Sonya

Hamrick, Julius

Harr, Donald

Harr, Linda

Hoard, Henrietta

Hoard, Ronald

Holcomb, Randy

Holsinger, Ruth

Hopkins, Debbie

Howard, Ernest

Howard, Pegy

Howard, Sheree

Hughes, Bob

Hughes, Karen

Hutte, Beverly

Jewett, Ronald

Johnson, Rebecca

Johnson, Walter

Jordan, Janice

Journey, Mark

Karzee, Gregory

Kennedy, Bonnie

King, Ray

Kinsler, Jean

Krekeler, Charles

Lennex, Ron

Lester, Christina

Logan, Dewayne

Logan, Marta

Maguire, Stephanie

Matiz, Erika

Mccarty, Bessie

McGraw, Joni

McKinley, Diane

McKinley, Rachel

Messer, Jessica

Messer, Rocky

Miller, Brandi

Miller, Nancy

Miller, Ronald

Monde, Tanya

Mullins, Joyce

Mullins, Tammy

Nathan, John

Nelson, Amanda

Nelson, Marcella

Nickel, Sandra

Nickel, Thomas

Parker, Diana

Phillips, Alan

Phillips, Denise

Piquet, William

Pollitt, Lara

Ratcliff, Jesse

Ratcliff, Shannon

Reed, Mish

Reeder, Mark

Reideinger, Amy

Rice, Russell

Riley, Brenda

Robosson, Lisa

Roe, Tammy

Rose, Kenneth

Rose, Phyllis

Roush, Michael

Roush, Paul

Ruggles, Angela

Ruggles, Jesse

Salyers, Michelle

Scherer, Letitia

Schwartz, Barbara

Scott, Dennis

Scott, Roger

Shaffer, John

Shepherd, Jennifer

Sherree, Howard

Silvia, Barbara

Silvia, Ed

Smith, Danny

Smith, Debra

Smith, Pauline

Soard, Marcella

Soard, Tim

Sorrell, Debra

Sparks, Melissa

Spears, Danny

Spradlin, Tina

Sprague, Clara

Sprague, Clara Bell

Spriegel, Melissa

Stacy, Harold

Stacy, Joyce

Storts, Jean

Swords, Al

Swords, Traci

Tackett, Rebecca

Thompson, John

Vega, Joe

Wagner, Nikki

Wallace-Hill, Cuba

Weaver, Georgetta

Weddington, Wallace

Whisman, Charles

Whisman, Margaret

Whitaker, Bill, Jr.

Wikoff, Doug

Wilcoxan, Anne

Wilcoxan, Heather

Wilson, Deborah

Young, Carrie

Young, Scott

Young, Stacy

Zickafoose, Danny

Appendix B

Snuffy Says Sitty Manager Virgin' on Nervus Brakedown

July 12, 2014, 9:59 am

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Zounds! It sez hear the sitty man’ger  Allen aftur ownly six moons on the job writ a scaything five-page litter denuncing everbuddy. Allen sez,  “The level of dysfunction is far greater than I could have ever imagined when I accepted the position of city manager.” It sounds as if Allens virgin' on a nervus brakedown for witch he’s gonna soo the sitty, shure as shootin’.

Becaws wee gut a new city man'ger,  First Weardoe  concilman Kevin W. Johnson cawlled  for a new sitty seal befittin' the dingity of Porchmouth. The won above contributed by sitty man'ger Allen was knot a contender. This was bee four Allen fowned owt just how dissfunctional  owr sitty govinment is.

Heres the entree  of yours trewly to the sitty seel contest,

in witch I aimed to put the fun back in dissfunctional.

The winner of the sitty seel contest feeturing 

First Weardoe concilman Johnson

The Deification of Derek Jeter

July 17, 2014, 7:21 pm

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The amount of hype preceding  every  All-Star Game is heavy, but  this year the hype was  horrendous. It was horrendous because it was accompanied by the  idolization of Derek Jeter, who is retiring at the end of the current season.  Not even the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat,  Babe Ruth, was idolized anywhere near the degree that Jeter has been.  The  idolization of Jeter spills over to deification. For some Americans,  he’s  Derek Jesus. He did not hit with the power of Ruth and dozens of other legendary sluggers. He did not play shortstop with the range and skill of a dozen others who have played that position. He did not run the bases with the speed of the fastest. He was good, very good, but what he was great at was being good for so long. For example,  he was a good base stealer for  so long that he holds the record for most steals in Yankee history. There were lots of Yankees who were faster than he was, but nobody ran longer. Except for an off-, injury-plagued year in his mid-thirties, he was always at the top of his game. It was his longevity that enabled him to compile the very impressive statistics that he has. Lou Gherig was known as the Iron Horse because of  his durability. Gehrig  played a record seventeen seasons for the Yankees, but Jeter broke that record and at  the end of the 2014 season will have played for twenty years, three years longer than Gehrig.

Jeter began playing for the Yankees in 1995, about when chemical cheating began. It was as prevalent as it was because it was profitable. Baseball was slipping into the doldrums in the latter part of the twentieth century. It needed a jolt and  steroids juiced it up. It became much more profitable for the players, especially for the juiced stars, but also for the complicit team owners. Then the pervasiveness of the chemical cheating was revealed in news reports and in tell-all books like Jose Canseco’s Juiced (2005), the subtitle of which was Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big. Baseball defended itself by transforming  baseball’s Mr. Clean, Derek Jeter, from the Anti A-Rod into the Shining Knight of Abstinence in baseball’s scandalous, dark night of steroids. His final transformation  was from the Shining Knight to The Captain, making him the god of  baseball. Jeter has been the well-paid poster boy for the most monopolistic team in American sports, a team located in the financial capital of America, where the dress code once called for pinstripes. George Steinbrenner was a stereotypical unscrupulous capitalist, but Jeter's deification has helped rehabilitate The Boss's reputation. The reason for Jeter’s deification was  not just his longevity but also his reputed integrity.  He has put up very impressive numbers in his long career without apparently committing the cardinal sin of modern baseball, without using  performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). He apparently achieved greatness without the chemical cheating that was so prevalent in major league baseball in the last quarter century.

Almost everyone involved in and connected to baseball has helped glorify Jeter—the fans, the complicit owners, the obliging commissioners; the adulatory New York sportswriters; and even the professional arbiters of the sport, the umpires. As reported recently in the New York Times (7 July 2014),  a statistical  study revealed that umpires, in calling of balls and strikes in regular games, favor pitchers  who have been selected for All-Star Games over those who have not by a margin of 17 percent. Based on my observation of the electronic balls and strikes tracking  available to me as a subscriber to MLB.TV, I suspect a study would show umpires in the calling of balls and strikes similarly favor All-Star hitters.  And at no time would umpires be more inclined to favor the All-Star Jeter than in his farewell year and in his final All Star Game. But umpires were  not the only ones on the field at the All-Star Game who favored him. The National League starting All-Star pitcher Adam Wainwright revealed how much even an opposing player  could get  caught up in the delirium of deifying Jeter.  After returning to the dugout, the somewhat giddy Wainwright  admitted to reporters that he had deliberately grooved a pitch to Jeter in the first inning of the All-Star Game. Wainwright  wanted   “The Captain” to live up to the very high expectations baseball fans have for him.  Wainwright subsequently tried to downplay if not retract his admission, but truth will out.  To vary the  famous Latin quotation in vino veritas (in wine there is truth), I would say in delirare veritas  (in delirium  there is truth), as the Oracle at Delphi was believed to have demonstrated.

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Jeter is not only the anti-A-Rod, he is, at a subliminal level of  our national psyche, the anti-Obama. This does not mean Jeter is anti-Obama or even a  Republican.  As  close to his black father as he appears to be, Jeter is not anti-Obama. On the contrary, he admitted voting for Obama in 2012. Typical of remarks online to this revelation of Jeter’s vote for Obama were the following three comments on Free Republic, a conservative chat room: (1)“Normally a guy who plays it close to the vest and shuns controversy like the plague, Jeter blasts out his presidential choice. This Yankee fan feels confused, as a hero becomes just another dumb athlete.” (2) “A great baseball player, an economic moron. Life goes on.” (3) “Derek Jeter proves he’s on dope.” But contrary to the claim that Jeter “blasted out” his presidential choice, Jeter usually plays it close to the vest when it comes to politics and does avoid controversy like the plague.  He’s no dope. He knows it would be bad for his lucrative endorsement business and Jeter clothing line to offend either conservatives or liberals.

In the minds of many conservative white baseball fans Jeter  apparently represents the triumph of American values and the realization of  the American Dream. With no more than a high school education, Jeter mastered his physical craft and became, if not  one of the one percent,   at least extremely wealthy, with a large ocean-front mansion in Florida. In a poll conducted by Fortune Magazine of who the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders were,  Jeter came  in at Number 11. President Obama didn’t crack the top 50. Jeter is  not, like Obama,  a liberal Harvard law school graduate and former community organizer whom  many conservatives feel is, as president, leading the country down the road to socialized medicine, same sex marriage,  and Islam. If Jeter looked more like his black father maybe  there would be less idolization of him, and perhaps if Obama looked more like his white mother there might be less fear and hatred of him. But as it stands, the bi-racial Jeter and the bi-racial Obama occupy important if antithetical niches in the American imagination,  the one being deified, the other demonized. A central figure in the BALCO steroid scandal, Victor Conte, said there was no way in the world Jeter could have become the  ageless athlete he did without PED’s. The same has been said of David Ortiz the Red Sox slugger whose lackluster, injury-plagued career took off only after he was released by the Twins after no team was interested in trading  for him. After his release, he was signed  by the Red Sox. That may have been  when he began taking a PED, which not only improves a player's performance on the field but speeds up his recovery from injuries and slows down the process of aging off the field  Ortiz is widely believed to have been among those players who tested positive for PEDs in a test in which players were guaranteed anonymity. Was Jeter one of those who tested positive? It seems very unlikely but who knows for sure?

Jeter has been accused not only using PED’s but also of being gay or at least a switch hitter. He was featured in a cover story, “Jeter’s Swinging Years,”  in GQ (April 2011), a magazine that has been suspected from its inception of catering to gay readers. The photos of him in that issue are not only humorous but in light of its reputation, suggestive.

Jeter in GQ. Size does matter.

Good sport that he is, Jeter also appeared in drag as a player’s wife in a sketch when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 2001. 

Did Jeter discuss drag bunting on Saturday Night Live?

If it should turn out that Jeter is one of those who used some form of PED to achieve his longevity as a baseball player, and if it should turn out that he is not quite as heterosexual as all his gorgeous scantily clad white girlfriends would suggest, and if it is publicized that he voted for that devil Obama for president, his deification might grind to a halt. It might, in other words, be a whole new ballgame.

(For an earlier post on the subject of Viagra and baseball clickhere.)

Derek Allen's Cock-and-Bull Open Letter

July 28, 2014, 10:31 am

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Cock and Bull, Matt Sesow

We have  come full circle. As a result of the familiar fraud of musical chairs made possible by four-year terms, one of the most incompetent and dishonest mayors in Portsmouth history,  Jim Kalb, is mayor again, at least in name. Because of the current crisis in Portsmouth’s city government, concerned citizens should read City Manager Derek Allen’s “Open Letter to the City Council,”  which is bundled with  his July 14, 2014 city manager’s report, located on the city’s website. (See link in Appendix A, below or click here  for the report and then scroll down seventeen pages.) Allen’s Open Letter confirms  the suspicion that instead of being part of the solution, Allen, as city manager, is part of the problem. He is very ambitious, but as city manager he has, statutorily, virtually no power.  As city manager, Allen has  lots of responsibilities but very little authority. His primary responsibility, as city manager,  is to carry out the policies and directives of the city council. If Allen is worn to a frazzle after only six months, it may in part be because in addition to his many responsibilities he is also a commuting city manager who still makes his home in Piqua, Ohio, some two and half hour drive  from Portsmouth. He doesn't commute every day of course, but even weekend commuting would be tiring.

The city manager form of  government is a misleading misnomer; it should be called the city council form of government. But Allen appears to think that as city manager he has quite a bit of power.   As he writes in his Open Letter, "I stated that there was a methodical plan to be installed and that I knew the steps to ensure success. I intended to implement changes to turn Portsmouth around and cease people laughing at this community." One of the steps that would "cease people laughing" at Portsmouth was having a city manager form of government and hiring a leader like himself to be city manager. "The city," he wrote, "had no other choice but to turn the operations over to a professional [himself] in order to reverse the present course or face failure and financial collapse." Instead of being the servant of the city council, he often sounds in his letter like its master. "On February 4, 2014," we read in his letter,  "each council member received a list of my 2014 goals and objectives . . ." They received his goals and objectives?

Allen is sure he knows how to stop people laughing at Portsmouth because he recently was a village administrator in Delta, a small  community of about three thousand people in the northeast corner of Ohio, a community, he claims, people used to laugh at until he turned it around.  What is odd about his claim is that Delta had and still has a mayoral, not a city manager form of government, and what is odder still is that  he was not the mayor of Delta but  only the village administrator, who worked for the mayor.  If there was a dramatic turnaround in Delta, shouldn't  Dan. D. Miller,  who was and still is mayor,  get at least some of the credit? But credit for what? I have made a cursory examination of  the per capita income and population data for Delta and it does not appear that any dramatic turnaround has taken place  in the last five years or so. The most newsworthy thing that's happened in Delta in the last year  was the breakup of a big cockfighting ring that was operating in the area. As many as fifty people were arrested and as many as seventy roosters were confiscated. It was a big story in Fulton County.  Google "Delta and cockfighting" and see for yourself. I suspect that the turnaround that Allen allegedly  single-handedly brought about in Delta may be a cock-and-bull story.

I predicted when the city manager form of government was proposed several years ago that it would not, because it could not, succeed. But I did not think it would implode so fast. I think Allen's days (including as many extemporaneous vacation days he can squeeze in) are numbered, and no matter the circumstances under which he leaves, it is going to cost the city money that it cannot afford, anymore than it could afford to expend the money it did for the costly  job search that led to Allen's hiring, and for that we have our officious, underhanded First Ward councilman Kevin W. Johnson to thank. Johnson is the begetter of the cockamamie idea of returning to the city manager form of government that proved such a failure in the past.

Allen was not very open in his Open Letter about his experience as the Safety Service Director in Celina, Ohio, where he was fired, arrested, convicted, fined, and given a suspended 90-day suspended jail sentence for dereliction of duty in public office. Allen had problems in other jobs, but Portsmouth residents were kept in the dark about them by the city council and by the underhanded chair of the search committee, Kevin W. Johnson. My recollection is that we learned only after he was hired that Allen had a criminal record.  Johnson was like the crooked conductor who doesn't announce the true destination of the train until after it has left the station. In reverting to the city manager form of government, as I pointed out in an earlier post (see "The Crooked Conductor" below), we are historically going in the wrong direction. According to a relatively recent scholarly study of the subject, cited in that post, the misnamed city manager system is giving up the ghost. If  Johnson is the crooked conductor in my train metaphor, Allen is the fast and loose engineer who writes five-page cock-and-bull open letters when he should have both hands on the throttle.

Kevin W. Johnson says,"All aboard!"

Appendix A

Previous River Vices posts on the subject of city manager

Barry Feldman (click here)
Gerlach Against City Manager (click here)
City Manager: Repeating the Same Mistake (click here)
Vote No on City Manager (click here)
City Manager Search (click here)
Snuffy Smith on City Manager (click here)
Kevin W. Johnson: The Crooked Conductor (click here)
City Manager Valentine (click here)
Kalb: The Dopiest Councilman of All (click here)

                                                                        
                                                                    Appendix B            

Allen's Open Letter to Portsmouth City Council

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Snuffy's Take on Jim Kalb's Open Letter

August 13, 2014, 8:23 am

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Jim Kalb composing his open letter to Kevin W. Johnson

Iffen you red Drek Aillen’s Cock-n-Bull Opin Litter, now reed Jim Kalb’s  to the failed antic deeler Kevin W. Johnson. Summite suspeck Ol’ Jim din’t rite the litter cuz it lax the redneck shit-and-piss retrick that made Jim  the most famus Appleashen in the whirl fur 48 ours a few yeers back. Sumuthers mite suspeck Jim didn’t rite it cuz it haz finnishin’ skool wurds like “therefore,” “ultimately,” and “abide” wen all he haz iz a vacational edjication. Weather itz by Jim or his bitter haff wif the govinment krazy chek. Iffen you aint red Jim’s Appleashen masterpiss, just klick here.

Jims open litter iz not so much a litter az a chronicul of govinment cunfusion, cullusion, and dilusion in witch Jim cumplanes Kevin always kept him, that iz Jim, out of the loop privyusly but iz trying’ to suck up to him now that Kevin iz on the sity man’gers shitlist.

Bee that az it may, Jims litter to Kevin W. begins,

             "Hello Vice President Kevin W.”

He leaves  off  hiz last name witch iz suposed too bee sarkastick  like you wood begin a litter to the president, “Hello President B’rack Husane,” leavin’ off hiz last name Obummer.  Summite say iffen he rit the litter hisself he cud cum up with sumthin’ better like, “Hello Vice President Kevin W. who  I woodn’t piss on if you waz shit on fire.”  But la-dee-da Jim sez insted, "I copied this correspondence to all concerned because, well, that’s just the proper way to do things (in my opinion)." Wat Jims  reely doin' ritin’ fancee-dancee like this iz makin' fun of kweers who rite like that. Then Jim  sez supersillyous,“I don’t know if you have ever read the Charter, you don’t understand the language in the Charter or you just flat out refuse to abide by the Charter and other laws/rules governing Council.” Jim leckturing Kevin W. on vilelating the chatter iz ironick cuz Jim iz the biggist vilelator of the chatter in the anals of Porchmuth like he did on the Martin’ bilding and the Kiwanis Playground. Hell, there aint nobuddy who vilelates the chatter more’n Jim.

Jim also ‘cuses Kevin of subvertin’ the Design and Review Bored. Speekin’ of bored, don't we have more than enuff bored fellas in sity govinment and nobuddy more so than Jim, as shone in the  classick schnapshot of him  ketchin’ twenty winks during a counsil meatin'.

As fur Kevin’s dilutions of grander, Jim in hiz litter quotes an emale in witch Kevin rote,“As you know, Derek is called by our fire or police Chief whenever there is a fire, homicide, robbery or a bear in the city. I have asked to be called as well; as the Mayor (or Acting Mayor, in my case, effective July 1) I should be aware of such activity.” In uther wurds, Kevin W. wants to be in the loop as much az he wants to keep Jim out of the loop. If theres a bear or a bare-ass stewdent running up Chillyclothy street, Kevin W. wants to be woked up and tolled about it.

Then in a kleer warnin’ to Kevin W.,  Jim kwotes the city chatter like it’s the Bibull, the furst commandmint being you better follow the chatter or you cud end up convickted: “Any violation of the provisions of this section by a member of the Council shall be a misdemeanor, conviction of which shall immediately forfeit the office of the member so convicted.”Of coarse our currant sity man’ger wuz prevously convicted of lying under oath about givin’ a buddy of his a no-bid contrack for gravil or sumthin’ butt he waz hired anyway. In fakt, I think one of the kwalifications fur the job waz you gut to have  a please record or at least to have been a bankcorrupt.

Jim allso cumplains in his litter ‘bout Kevin tellin’ Drek to take a vacation.Kevin tellin’ Drek to take a brake iz like Hitler rekomending that Muscleenie becuz he’s virgin on a nervuss brakedown shood take a long vakation and leeve Itally to the Nasties.“Not your call Kevin,”  Jim sez in his opin litter. “The City Manager is perfectly capable of scheduling a vacation for himself when he feels the need.”

Here’s the hippocritical enden of Jims opin litter to Kevin W. “Since you took a seat on City Council I’ve witnessed a loss of confidence that Portsmouth residents have in their city government. I’ve seen nothing from you but hidden agendas and a failure to follow the laws and rules governing the city. I’ve watched you speak for City Council as a whole without being asked. You thrive on controversy and you constantly share information with the media before it is ever discussed by Council. Now allow me to ask a question of you: Do you plan to continue your actions on City Council as you have to this point? If you have no intentions of changing, would you consider making it easier on everybody and cheaper on the City and just resign your seat on Portsmouth City Council?”

Jims  crittersizin’ Kevin W. Johnson on vilelating the city chatter iz ironick cuz like he did on the Martin’ bilding and the Kiwanis Playground, Jim iz the biggest  vilelator of the city chatter in the hisorry  of Porchmuth. Hell, there aint nobuddy who haz ever vilelated the chatter more’n Jim.

Iz this what sity managemint govinment in Porchmuth haz cum too? The bankruptured, incompitent Kroaker clerk a-lying with the convickted sity man’ger aginst the Connivin’ Actin’ Mayor affective July 1? Guvnor Kasick haz got it rong. It aint the devil whose in controll in Porchmuth, itz the lawyers and develuppers that pulls the strings of the underhanded, bankruptured and incompetint politishins of witch the out-to-lunch Jim Kalb is the epitymee. 

Political Puppets of Portsmouth

Miracle on 2nd Street

August 20, 2014, 2:04 pm

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318 2nd St. before . . .

and after . . .

Before you read further, look at  the webpage on  Facebook for 318 2nd St. Street (click here). What has happened architecturally at 318 2nd St. is not just a renovatation, it is a remarkable transformation, if not a miracle, especially in the interior. Going against the American grain, in which appearance is everything, the exterior of the new 318 is simple and unprepossessing. Contrast it in that respect with the Marting building, which is really three old buildings with a phony, pretentious soulless façade hiding a dark, dank interior.

The owners, Gary and Tim,  have turned the the former crack house into a state-of-the-art student residence that makes the dormitories in Hatcherville look like Hoovervilles, and they have done it, if what they told me is accurate, without the kind of public assistance, tax breaks, and  financial guarantees that Neal Hatcher squeezes out of local public officials, who are his political puppets. 

The history of  the building at  318 2nd St. reflects the history of Portsmouth in the last half century when hundreds of  buildings fell into disrepair, and ended up like orphans after a plague, the plague of drugs. For a while, the way a pimp might corral  desperate down-and-out dollar prostitutes, Shane DeSimone had bought 318 2nd St. from a Kentucky bank along with a number of  other abandoned Portsmouth buildings.  For a previous post on DeSimone, click here. But DeSimone could not keep up with the payments on the buildings, declared bankruptcy, and the city was stuck with his buildings, including 318 2nd St., which had been a crack house where drug deals went down at the back door day and night.The neighbors complained and the city condemned the building, which meant it was destined to be torn down. But like a prisoner on death row, it had to wait its turn before it could be demolished, and there were lots of others in line ahead of it. That’s when Gary and Tim bought the building for a couple of thousand dollars with the aim of raising it, like Lazarus, from the dead.

It would take many more thousands of dollars and a lot of work, but in  an incredible display of entrepreneurial  daring they took the risk. Some people thought they were loco,   but they displayed just the kind of entrepreneurial, competitive spirit that Portsmouth needs.  They hope that the members of one of SSU’s athletic teams might be tenants, say the women’s basketball team, because the building is ideal for a group of students who have bonded together, as athletic teams tend to do.   In the deal Hatcher has with SSU, he cannot lose, there is no risk, because the university guarantees that if the occupancy rate in Hatcherville residence halls falls below a certain percent, he will be reimbursed by the university. (For more on Hatcherville, click here.) Corruption and non-competitive sweetheart deals are the norm when it comes to buying and selling property in Portsmouth, as it was in the notorious sale of the Marting building.  Gary and Tim have no such sweetheart deal. But they have heart and imagination. They have a dream, a beautiful dream, and it looks like the dream is becoming a reality.

644 4th Street: The Turning Point?

September 17, 2014, 4:23 pm

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The misinformed, misleading classified ad that appeared in the Portsmouth Daily Times, 9/9/2014

It is too early to say for sure, but something happened in the Municipal Building in connection with 644 4th Street  on Tuesday September 16th, that may turn out to be an important date in the history of the reform movement in Portsmouth. The scam sale of the Marting’s building a dozen years ago was the turning point in the struggle against the Johnson-Hatcher poverty-fueled racket that milked the state and federal governments of money that was supposed to alleviate poverty in Portsmouth but actually increased it. What happened on September 16th may be the turning point in the struggle against the new crook on the block, Thurman “Ed” Hughes and his rapidly expanding drug-fueled “counseling” businesses, which are supposed to be reducing Portsmouth’s dependency on illegal drugs but are actually increasing it.

The classified ad above, which I have enlarged,  appeared in the Portsmouth Daily Times (PDT) where it was buried, in very small type, in the back pages where it would not likely be seen by neighbors living near 644 4th Street, in Boneyfiddle, or by anyone else either. But even if they had seen it, would they have known what it meant? In the deceptive language of the ad, the words “counseling” and “dormitory” and “client” are used but there is no mention whatsoever of drugs, addiction, or rehabilitation. Until just a few days before the hearing on the 16th, nobody in the 4th St. neighborhood had seen that ad or known about the hearing scheduled by the City Planning Commission (CPC) in the Municipal Building until somebody put a flyer with a copy of the ad under the door of a 4th St. resident, around September 13th, and within hours most of the neighborhood knew that 644 4th St., along with a house at 1327 Kinney’s Lane, were to be converted into "residences" for "clients" of Ed Hughes' lucrative counseling businesses. According to Austin Leedom, for the year 2012, Hughes reported income of over $19,000,000 (that's nineteen-million dollars!) to the Internal Revenue Service.

The CPC Lacks the Authority

About twenty-five people showed up for the hearing, more than had been expected, so it was moved from the Engineer’s Office to Council Chambers. The City Manager Derek Allen, who chaired the hearing, surprised everybody  by declaring at the outset  that Item # 1 on the agenda, Compass Point Housing's request to "utilize" the houses on 4th St. and Kinney's Lane for "dormitory style living for up to 10-14 "residents," was out of order because the CPC had no authority to authorize such a utilization and that the item should not have been on the agenda in the first place. The Counseling Center and its Compass affiliates—I would call them fronts, not affiliates—would have to take their request to convert 644 4th St. and 1327 Kinney’s Lane into drug rehabilitation “dormitories” to the City Council. The CPC lacked the authority? The hearing should not have been held? How could that be when the City Planning Commission itself had submitted and paid for the classified ad in the PDT?  Hadn’t the City Manager, who chairs the CPC, read the ad before it appeared in the PDT? And if the City Manager hadn’t read it beforehand, hadn’t the City Solicitor, and shouldn’t he, as the city's chief legal officer, have understood that it was a mistake to bring the issue before the CPC? But he apparently  didn't know.  Was this an example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing? Was this  snafu the result of the City Solicitor’s notorious cluelessness?

The City Manager’s announcement that the hearing was a mistake was not the only surprise. When he got a chance to say something, Craig Gullion, executive director of Compass Point Housing, said his organization was no longer interested in acquiring 1327 Kinney’s Lane, anyway, because it was too small for the 10 to 12 “clients” he had wanted to house there. Isn’t the size of a house the first and most obvious thing one notices, and wouldn’t the County Auditor’s website have provided the exact square footage for the executive director to determine whether 1327 Kinney’s Lane was a house he wanted to utilize? The size may not have been the only problem with the house. Since 1327 Kinney's Lane is owned by Municipal Court Judge Steven Mowery’s family, wouldn’t the sale of it to the Counseling Center/Compass Point Housing have raised the issue of his  possible conflict of interest, and might that not have been a possible additional reason why the Mowery property was not  suitable for a half-way house?

Boneyfiddle Saturated with Counseling Center, Inc.

The question now is whether the Counseling Center/Compass Point Housing is going to request the City Council to allow it to acquire 644 4th Street, which, if I understood correctly, they would need to do since that house is at present a private residence rather than a commercial property. But if they make such a request of the council and if they go ahead with their plans for 644 4th, they may wish they hadn’t because now as a result of those attending the-hearing-that-shouldn't-have-been-held, the 4th St. residents know what the Counseling Center and Ed Hughes are up to and they are strongly opposed to it, having signed a notarized petition to that effect that was handed to the CPC at the hearing. The Boneyfiddle district is now the most saturated Counseling Center neighborhood in Portsmouth. There is for starters the Counseling Center's Stepping Stone house for pregnant girls at the corner of Front and Court Street. Then there is the large Counseling Center facility located in the former Scudder School on the corner of 4th and Court Street, and not far from that is the Second Chance facility, at 521 5th Street, which previously had been a detention center for delinquents. In "Neighbors in Terror at Second Chance Drug House," Wally Leedom interviewed a middle-aged housewife who lives near that facility. She told him that drug deals go down  day and night through the metal fence. We owe to Austin Leedom, the retired but tireless former deputy sheriff and his son Wally deep thanks for being the first to expose the government-financed racket Hughes is running in Portsmouth and in other counties in Ohio.

When it comes to the patience of Boneyfiddle residents, 644 4th St. may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, just as the Marting’s building had been for for the whole city a dozen years ago. The 4th St. residents are united now and could lead a campaign against Ed Hughes’ rapidly spreading cancerous Counseling Center businesses. If they do, then we should be thankful that the misleading and mistaken classified ad appeared in the PDT, for out of its misbegottenness may grow a movement that might put Counseling Center, Inc., out of business, like the racketeering SOGP was by the FBI in 2012.

644 4th St.: the house the Counseling Center has designs on

Earlier must-read posts on Ed Hughes and the Counseling Center

"Just Say No to Ed Hughes" (click here)

"From Pill Mills to Counseling Centers" (click here)

The Multiple Chance Drug House

September 23, 2014, 2:01 pm

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"Beware of snake-oil salesmen peddling miracle cures."

In a flyer distributed for the 20th anniversary of the Marsh House, Counseling Center, Inc.'s,  founder Ed Hughes wondered what the late Jim Marsh, after whom the halfway house is named,  would have said about the 20-year-anniversary and celebration. "I think he [Jim Marsh] would find it just perfect," Hughes wrote. Just perfect? The sign in front of the facility advertises "miracles." From what I have learned about Ed Hughes, I would say Counseling Center, Inc., and its Compass Point affiliate, rather than being perfect, are perfectly awful. As Mark Twain might have said, "Beware  of snake-oil salesmen peddling miracle cures." I believe the Council Center, Inc./Compass Point  is a curse and is one of the reasons Portsmouth has a reputation, backed up by statistics, of being among the most drug-ridden cities in Ohio. Counseling  Center, Inc., is a business, not a humanitarian operation, and the more addiction there is in Portsmouth the more prosperous Hughes' business becomes. Counseling Center, Inc., has attracted drug addicts from other  Ohio counties and from other states as well for a decade because Hughes knows how to get the government and the tax-payers  to pay for housing and feeding and transporting his "clients," as he calls his drug-addicted customers.

Business is so good that Counseling Center, Inc./Compass Point Housing keeps on expanding  in Portsmouth and beyond, buying residential houses and converting them into half-way houses, which lowers property values in the neighborhood because people don't want to live near these so-called half-way houses where, their critics claim, based on their personal observation, that at least some of the addicts continue to obtain drugs because of lax supervision. This is particularly the case, according to  Shawnee Sentinel reporter Wally Leedom,  at the Counseling Center's facility that claims to have the highest level of security, what he calls the Second Chance Drug House, which occupies the former juvenile detention center in Boneyfiddle, for which Hughes pays no rent to the county, according to Austin Leedom, Wally's father.   I am reprinting a succinct interview with a woman Wally Leedom posted last summer because it suggests that the Counseling Center's Second Chance facility is much less than perfect, in spite of the claim "We believe in miracles," and might more accurately be called the Multiple Chance Drug House.

Snuffy Says, "Just Say No to Counseling Centers!"

September 28, 2014, 2:08 pm

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≪ Previous: The Multiple Chance Drug House

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"I tolled you drugs iz the ruination of this nation!"

“Hey, Gramps, ‘gratulate  me,” my  gud fur nuthin’gransun sez to me who  I aint sean in a  munth of mondaze.

“Gratulate you? Wat fur?” I sez.”

“I’m a client,” he sez.

“Yur a wat?” I sez.

“A client,” he sez, like  sumbuddy impotent.

“Wat’s a client?” I sez.

“Sumbuddy who gits sum respeck,” he sez.

“You meen you aint a drug addick enymore?”

        “I’m not sayin that,” he sez, “but I dun turned over a new leef.”

“A knew leef? You  aint started ‘nuther marywanna plantasion haf  you?”  I sez. He surved six munths in the hoosegow fur growin’  weed in one of the hollers hearabouts fore the revenooers  swooped in like a flock of crows and burnt the hole crop and hawled him  away in  hancufs.

“Nuthin’ like that,” he sez. “I’m a residint in a hafway howse at the Counsling Senter.”

“The wat?”

        “The Counsling Senter  hafway howse,” he  sez.

        “Wat’s that?”  I sez.

“Thats wear the  clients live,” he sez.

“The clients?”

“That’s rite,” he sez.

“Acrost the rivur?” I sez.

“That’s rite,” he sez. “They take care of ev’rythin’ crosst the river.  Grub, cloase, medsin . . .”

“Medsin?” I sez spitious cuz I think medsins bin the ruination of this country. 

“Yes medsin,” he sez.

"Yore gramma Daisy Mae wuz fine till sum docktor  bak in the nineteen-sixtees give hur a medcin called Vallyum  fur hur ressless leg sindrome  and she wuz addickted fur the rest of hur life, God rest hur soul.

“The  medsin’s free,”  he sez.

“It aint Vallyum, is it?” I sez.

“No,” he sez.

“Watz it called I sez,” seein’ heez hidin’ sumpin’.

Not lookin’ me in the eye, he sez,  “Suboxycotton.”

“Aint that wat you waz busted fur sellin’ last summer?” I sez.

“No, that waz full strenth Oxycotton,” he sez. “This is wartered down Oxycotton.”

“Wartered down?  Why’re they  givin’ you watered down addicktin’ drugs?” I sez.

“You don’t think anybuddy can quit cold turkey, do you?” he sez.

“Your unkle Zeke qwit moonshine cold turkey plenty  of times,” I sez. “I never seed anywon who cud qwit easier than  Zeke.”

“Sure, Gramps, but drugs iz diffurint.”

“Diffurint!  I donut no wat this kuntrys cummin’ to. Moonshine was gud enuf fur yore father and it waz gud enuff fur my father, and we maid  it our selfs, and yore granma pitched in, stompin' grapes restless leg and all. We didn’t wate for  govinmnet handowts in some hafass howse.”

“Hafway, Gramps,” he sez.

“Watever,” I sez.

“Life aint that simple anymore, Gramps.”

“Yore sure rite it aint,” I tells him. “And just wat govinment ajensee iz payin’ for all this?”

“The Department of Health and Human Services,” he says proud as a peecock, as tho he had a skulorship to Shawnee State.”

“Then how cum yore not at the hafway house now?” I sez. “Iz this yore semister brake?” I sez sarkastick.

“Coarse not,” he sez.

“Then why’re you hear?”

“Cuz the FBI raided the hafway house.”

“Wat in tarnasion for?” I sez.

“They ‘cused the owner of  cookin’ the books makin’ funny muney on Medicare and ‘rested him.”

“You meen won govinment ajency supplies the halfass  howse with drugs and muney and anuther govinment ajency raids the hafway howse for breakin’ the law?”

“I gess that’s pritty much it,” he sez.

“I hope you aint hear looking for a handout?”

“No, I aint,” he sez. “I just wanted to show you I ‘mounted to somethin’.”

“’Mounted to a client you meen?” I sez.

“That’s rite,” he sez.

“Then wat you goin’ to do? Go  back to cookin’ meth?”

“No, there’s plenty of  Counsling Senters  and  Ive been ‘cepted in another one.”

“So the Deportment of Hell and Hellish Servises, or whatever itz called,  pays the bills till  the Justiss Deportment or some other govinment ajency raids the hafass howse and 'rests the owner?”

“I gess that’s how it works,” he sez, like a client who duzn’t care who pays the bills as long as it aint him.

“Well, I’m glad you aint no client of mine,” I sez as he gows off and I waves to him and he waves bak and I sez to myself, “Wat’s this country comin’ too anyway?”